Mass Effect 2

The most anticipated game of E3 finally dropped last Tuesday and gamers scrambled their way to stores. The second title of the award winning series was hinted at betrayal, romance, and enough plot twists to rival Namco's Project: Breakdown. (If you haven't played that game, DO IT. It's fucked up amazing) I wanted to enjoy this game so much I put myself into a media blackout. Any ad, article or trailer that came by I would immediately cover my eyes and ears. I did not want any spoilers to ruin this and my efforts paid off.


ME2 begins in a way that is similar to The Empire Strikes Back, as in within the first five minutes of the game everything hits the fan. If you were a fan of the original, all I can say is get ready for ME2 to roundhouse kick you in the balls.

This is from the opening level. I was shitting my pants right about now

Now the story follows a familiar archetype that Bioware seems to like a lot. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 1, and I think Dragon Age: Origins all share a plot line. However, If you put me in front of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Blade Runner doesn't mean I'm going to be tired of Harrison Ford. Bioware knows what works and they are not going to fuck with it. What makes this game's story good, or any story for that matter (take notes future writers!) is that ME has a fully developed, fully realized universe. There's aliens, planets and technology that all has it's own backstory. Everything to why Turians and Humans don't get along to why the Quarians live on a nomadic fleet rather than a home planet. You can learn everything you could want from the core game, and thanks to a literally MASSIVE database you could learn everything down to the dates when the first contact war began between the Humans and Turians or when the Quarians were chased out of the floatila by the Geth. The voice acting and character interactions brought cinematic dialogue to a new height! subtle facial expressions, the way Shepard grinds is teeth when he's angry or how someone's eyes dart around when they get nervous. the syncing of great voice acting and perfectly executed motion capture must have been a herculean feat but it really shows how much the developers loved their own work. OH! and Seth Green's returning role as Joker, Tricia Helfer as the shipboard AI and Martin Sheen's performance of the Illusive Man were all extraordinary. It was really great to see celebrities put such an effort towards a game rather than cash a paycheck

ME1 had its issues which everyone wanted everyone else to know "its repetitive! the combat sucks! the inventory screen blows!" I personally saw no fault in anything but the repetitiveness of exploring other planets, I was a soldier so using the special powers and it's apparent bullshit wasn't an issue for me and I liked, that's right liked the inventory screen. It was slightly disorientating but once you grew a pair it was just fine. ME2 did the gamers a solid and pulled an Assassin's Creed II. As in they listened to customer and corrected the mistakes.

The first thing I noticed as an improvement was the combat. I remained a morally good soldier thanks to the awesomeness that was the file save carry over mcjigger, but I wanted to be more active in using the biotic and tech powers. The scroll wheel remained, but thanks to a simple mapping tool, activating the most used powers was a quick tap on the d-pad or shoulder buttons. Bioware wanted to make the combat more engaging and more enjoyable rather than something to drudge through. They put more cover, more weapons and more enemies to shoot, but I don't if its just because I was playing Modern Warfare 2 eight hours beforehand, but it felt like it didn't hold up. It wasn't bad by any means, it certainly is an improvement from the original, but it just didn't jump out at me.

weapon upgrades include shotgun accuracy to nukes! It takes an ass long time to fire and you pretty much get one chance, but hot damn is it fun!

The inventory aspect of the game is virtually non-existent. everyone says it "stream-lined", I like to say pussyfied. IT'S AN RPG FOR FUCKS SAKE. ITS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A COMPLEX INVENTORY!! But yes, there are much more variances between weapons, instead of the 2% more damage but 3% less heat resistance kind of differences that ME1 was notorious for. Even though a lot of it has been taken out, I found I liked the new, cleaner system. The player cant change your guns on the fly anymore neither. To access the armory you have to find a weapon locker to equip yourself and your team instead of through the start button. Like I said, pussyfi-streamlined. Armours have also seen a big change with really only one set of armour but there are plenty of upgrades for arms, legs, chest, etc. to choose from. The colour customization of the armour was possibly one of my favorite unexpected gameplay functions. I found myself constantly going back to the closet to change my armour and finding a colour scheme that worked right. Wow I sound gay, moving on!

Out of all the major changes this series went through, space exploration saw the biggest and best overhaul. No more aggravating trips in the MAKO rover! That alone was great, but they made the process of flying around the galaxy it's own meta game. Each star cluster had it's own mass relay, but to see the other systems in that cluster, you would have to use reserve fuel. Now you would have to plan trips based on fuel consumption and distances, and that oddly enough was really cool. Minerals found in ME2 are used to upgrade guns and improve shields and such. Upgrades to the ship are also important. (I found out that they pay off quite well later on in the game) So now there was a real motivation to mine planets, which itself was something completely new. Instead of looking for mineral deposits planetside, the player would scout from orbit with a neat scanning tool. Although it was slow, there was a way to speed up the process by manipulating both thumbsticks. But even that got dull after a while. It was always cool to see a spike in a desired element and launching a probe at it. The excitement really picked up when an anomaly was detected. Using the scanner, the location of the signal was sought out and a ground mission began! Each place had it's own story and was completely different than the last. Something that was hugely improved from the last.

Say goodbye to the lame repetitive MAKO missions! From now on, a shuttle will take you from the Normandy to wherever.

Now there is only one thing to wrap up. Who did I fuck? Call me conservative, (Don't ever call me that) but I swooned Miranda. That delightful but serious British accent drove me wild. The sheer amount of crew members that are "available" in ME2 makes for a love polygon that would make a soap opera look linear. Its actually funny to see just how far you can go with so many characters.

So now the Mass Effect series is 2/3 complete. And depending on the choices made, Shepard will live on to see and end to the Reapers, or drift in the vacuum forever. All I can say is I await the final chapter of this story more than the second coming of Christ.


+ The story rivals movies like the Matrix and District 9

+ Upgrading weapons from mined material provides a great motivation to explore the galaxy. And thank god too, cause...

+ Space exploration is fun!

+ New inventory layout isn't complicated for RPG n00bs and armour designs kick ass

+ Conversing segments are just as I remembered, awesome

+/- Combat is defiantly improved, but nothing worth praising

- The scale of planets is weird, and even with the scanning upgrade mining is an arduous process

+ Mass Effect Is a fully realized, functioning universe. I love it as much as Star Wars. I cannot say that enough


MY RATING: 9.5/10