Mass Effect 2
was one of those games that I was excited ofr, but never did any
extensive research on it. I didn’t watch many trailers, didn’t look for
news, I just pre-ordered it, heard how great it was before launch, and
started playing. I went in hoping for a more refined version, but
instead I got a notable improvement in nearly every aspect.
Mass Effect 2 Review
Platforms: Xbox 360(Reviewed), PC, Playstation 3
Release Date: 26/1/2010
The game is a direct continuation of Mass Effect 1,
and uses your previous save file to import your character and his/her
decisions. These actions can sadly not be changed without the use of
downloaded saves, or purchasing a motion comic that serves as an
abridged version of Mass Effect 1.
This is somewhat hampered by the fact that the intro of this game
takes about half an hour, and cannot be skipped. This is a personal
gripe because I tried to redesign my character, but he was really ugly,
so I tried again, only to have the game crash 25 minutes in, and then I
had to start a third file just to get past the tutorial area. I’m just
glad I was able to change my Shepard’s hair and alter his class when I
imported my save file.
In
the opening you witness the hyped death of Shapard, only to see him or
her rebuilt two years later, by the pro-humanity group known as
Cerberus. The group works as your commanding officer and provider of a
new ship, crew, and several new squad members, who make up a very
colorful cast of characters, each with their own unique abilities. The
combat overall feels like if you mixed Gears of War with Mass Effect 1,
and it works very well, making the combat feesl a lot more like a
shooter than a real time RPG, where you use multiple guns, Speaking of
which, you had a total of five guns on you in Mass Effect 1,
but here you start with two, or at least you do most of the time.
Unless you want to be a solider class and ignore the Tech and Bionic
powers that you could have at your disposal. I was just annoyed since I
had to wait until the game’s 50% marker before I could get back my
trusted assault riffle. As a result of the better combat, there was an
increase in the amount of enemies and overall number of things on the
screen, it thankfully manages to look good and remain colorful, although
the blue and grey of the first game have been replaced with orange,
yellow, and metallic grey. I find the game to be far more pleasing to
look at, and to sound better as well. Gone is the dull ambiance of the
first game, and in is the more dramatic score that tones down when
appropriate.
But
what is that without areas and locals that capture one’s interest?
Mass Effect 2 feels like it has about the 1.5 times the amount of
content that Mass Effect 1
had, but four times the new areas. Although, most of the new content
comes from the squad member’s own missions, let me explain. Every
companion character has their own side mission, referred to as loyalty
missions, that unlock a special ability for them and provide some
backstory and development. These areas can range from a destroyed
prison, that one member grew up in, a jungle society of insane humans,
and a ship where you need to comfort a party member after realizing the
horrible things that their father did. There are also dozens of other
instances like these. more of them short, but they do liven up the
gameplay a bit, with missions that have you defend wounded Quarians and
fuel a robot in hopes of finding mineral deposits. They aren’t very
memorable, but they are a nice touch, and amazingly lack any repeated
areas, unlike Mass Effect 1.
As
for the story, it’s a debatable subject. On one hand, it has more
characters, more missions, and the threat is a lot closer, in the form
of the collectors. They are pawns for the main antagonist revealed in
Mass Effect, the Reapers, but that’s the main problem. You’ve already
encountered the big, bad boss, and you now need to deal with their
pawns. In the first game, you we’re investigating intergalactic
treason, which threatened the death of billions, along with the entire
capital of the explored universe. Now you’ve just saving human
colonies, which was the first mission in the first game. It just feels
like we’re taking a step forward, and then two steps back. And while we
are indeed much closer to the main adversary after the ending of this
game, it feels like the Reapers are stalling and just throwing some
minions, who, despite having an interesting backstory, are just
diversions to the main threat, which is now at the galaxy’s doormat.
Despite my gripes with the basic structure, you are on a suicide
mission and lack the government resources that you had in the first
game, so it does create some good tension for the player. Especially
since the game is not afraid of telling you that you died, assuming that
you lacked the squad and resources needed to beat the game.
However,
I do love the relationships and side activities in this game. Mass
Effect 2 is one of the few games that feel one of the few games where I
like hearing what my crew members have to say, which is due to the upped
VA and dialog quality. While I liked the squad members in the first
game, this game does have far more interesting and more developed
companions, all of whom manage to be developed, with the exception being
the two downloadable characters, but I like to focus only on the main
game, unless stated otherwise. If I had to pinpoint one aspect of this
game that I really don’t like, it would be the mineral scanning and load
times.
The
mineral scanning mini game serves as a way to obtain four minerals,
which are used to buy upgrades you discover. Said upgrades in turn
change the ending, give you new weapons and upgrades, and allow you to
play around with more Bionic and Tech powers. Still, the actual mini
game is monotonous, you are moving a cursor around a planet whilst
waiting for a large chunk to appear, which is as thrilling as it sounds.
Other than that the only thing I have to complain about are the
loading times, I understand how big a game like Skyrim is and I understand why that game needs long load times, but Mass Effect 2’s loading
times certainly don’t need to be as long as they are. This problem
mostly occurs when traversing the Normany, your ship for traveling
across the stars. The ship has four levels, and each of them need about
seven to ten seconds to load. I understand that they need to load the
character voices, since your crew members are on the four floors, but it
seems like poor optimization.
Despite
my minor complaints, I love this game, from each of your companion’s
side stories, the improved combat, the higher audio and visual quality,
the new areas that you can explore. The game does so much right, and so
little wrong. Just a few additions like a few spaceship battles, or a
better developed antagonist. The main package is still a beautiful
experience, that happens to be topped off with a truly epic ending.
37/40
Wonderful
The game manages creates a lovely aesthetic, great gameplay, and may only be lacking a few additions or a bit of polish.
I'll be back next Sunday with my review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
Note:
There is DLC that allows you to pilot an upgraded replacement of the
MAKO, called the Firewalker, but I’m trying to keep my reviews DLC free,
unless I stated otherwise. I would however recommend the DLC for Mass Effect 2,
namely the Kasumi character pack and Overlord mission pack. But I
cannot stress enough that no one should buy either of the DLC packs for Mass Effect 1, They are overpriced and offer nothing new in terms of content, especially Pinnacle Station.
