Mass Effect 2 Review
Being the huge Bioware fan that I am in some ways Mass Effect 2 was a bit of a no brainer for me: Is it made by Bioware – Check. Does it allow me to continue saving the galaxy as Commander Shepherd (gender unrecorded)? – Check. Does it have women with Blue Boobies? – Check. So far so good but I have to admit I approached the sequel with a measure of trepidation because I loved the first Mass Effect, and I remember when I finished the game I was exhilarated, there was a huge space battle, I saved the galaxy and did it with style. In fact I enjoyed the ending so much I reloaded it and played the entire 40 minute end sequence again just to make sure I hadn’t imagined it.
Racking my Monkey brain to describe to those who haven’t played it all I can think of is take the space battle from Return of the Jedi, add the more dystopian universe and humour from Fire Fly, a dash of hero/anti hero (your choice) and then to finish allow the player choice. This last section is important because I cannot stress what an important part of the game this is, from micro events like how you want your Shepherd to look (including gender) and their interpersonal skills (if you are nice, or a complete arse) to bigger choices like much of your teams is force to sacrifice themselves to macro choices like genocide and the elimination of the ruling council for all known space.
This was all like catnip to me and I was a little apprehensive when I heard all the things that Bioware were stripping out of the game, but then they pulled me back in with the following piece of information:
You can bring your character and all of your choices with you.
Now this may seem like a minor point but let me explain. In the first game, you created your commander Shepherd and spent 30 – 40 hours shaping them and the game world into the way you wanted it, and now you can take all of those choices and build upon it in this game, with every choice defining the game experience that you are having ever more uniquely. Bioware then pounded the final nail home: you can take the character at the end of this game across to the third one with all the decisions from upwards of 70 hours of play coming with you and the universe you have created. Wow.
Alas I am getting a little off point here as I was going to talk about Mass Effect 2. The game picks up shortly after the conclusion of the first game and at this point the enemies for this game the “Collectors” are revealed and so the next 30 hours of Bioware’s epic kicks off in grand style. This is the first real indication of the development teams revaluation of the weaknesses in the previous title becomes clear in that while Mass Effect 1 was a slow burner, (I personally think it took about 4 hours or so to really get going) this one grabs you and pulls you kicking and screaming through the first hours delivering the dialog and story that Bioware are rightly known for in a tighter and more focussed manner that I have seen them deliver previously. Right from the off the intrigue builds in that old enemies are now allies and your old allies have given you up for lost — its powerful stuff.
The second indication of the changes is that listening to player feedback the developers have reevaluated the classes of player character (Soldier, Support, Biotic which is this games version of a magic user) and have made many change to make sure they play more individually and the chance to make changes to your character is given at the start of the game ensuring that the player gets the most out of their time. this extensive soul searching is evident in how gameplay mechanics from the first game have been removed and replaced with ones that work better, the first games quick time are gone and have been replaced with pattern matching and memory games, the inventory, that RPG staple, has been removed and so has the wonky planet exploration sections.
The same care has been taking to ensure that the technical issues that plagued the first game are not repeated in this one, so no over long lift sections to load the next section – replaced with animated wireframe loading screen so the loading time is reduced. The texture pop in which was so prevalent in the previous title is now almost non existent occurring just once for me in over 40 hours of play.
Its not all good however the wonky planet exploration mechanic was replaced with scanning planets from orbit, more realistic maybe but very boring, and I found the finale of the game fell slightly flat for me but these are minor points in an otherwise excellent title.
I know I made a lot of noise at the start of this post about the importing of the characters but people new to the series are catered for as well allowing you to create your character from fresh, at this point the game will ask you some questions giving you the chance to make some choices while it makes some others that ensure better story telling, you will end up with a less personal start point than someone ow played Mass Effect one, but by the end of the game it will be your universe and not having that background will not matter.
In short if you havent played this yet play it, but if you want the best experience grab the first game (its cheap now) play it through and then start this one but if thats too much effort, grab this one sit yourself down and enjoy!
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are PC and Xbox 360 exclusives – sorry guys!
