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Mass Effect 2 Review
by Garnett Lee, Feb 18, 2010 8:00pm PSTThe second game in a planned trilogy, Mass Effect 2 continues Bioware's sci-fi hero's epic as Commander Shepard and company struggle to save the universe from a powerful ancient force called the reapers. In grand space opera style their saga plays out against a backdrop of political subterfuge as races vie for power in the galactic community. Those coming into the series fresh will have no problem catching up on the plot but may still feel like they're missing out on something. Mass Effect 2 "remembers" the actions you took in the first game if you finished it and incorporates them into the ongoing story.
Mass Effect 2 boasts deep role-playing roots but they belie the game's more action-oriented up-tempo pace. It winds up in a design limbo somewhere between the two, held there by vestiges of traditional design that suddenly feel out of place. The worst of these disrupts the natural ramp up in the urge to see what happens next with a time-consuming process of scanning planets for resources needed to upgrade your crews' equipment.
The story also gets torn in two directions right as it comes up to speed. After a riveting first few hours, saving the universe takes a backseat to gathering a crew and making them happy. Like taking time out to go on a mining expedition, it's hard to figure out why you're going off on personal errands in the face of the end of civilization. There's little time to savor the fruits of that labor either; once you're ready, the central story arc rushes the team to the conclusion. And all of that to culminate in a clichéd video game final encounter that ends the game at its lowest point.
These flaws stand out in large part because Mass Effect 2 creates such a completely engrossing experience. Every element of the universe Bioware has created clicks. You develop a natural sense for the places, races, how they all fit together, and their interplay with the characters and story of the game. And no game has incorporated a malleable character better than Mass Effect 2's Commander Shepard. Never has choosing the darker side -- in this case more of being self-serving and expedient than truly evil -- felt so liberating. And because it does, going that extra mile to be the good guy feels that much more heroic. That's why the decisions made to make the game more accessible were right on target. Some will still want to wring every drop of content from a playthrough; others will revel in playing in the moment and following the story where it takes them; but however you play it, Mass Effect 2 is a game everyone should experience.
Comments
but the fact it took you this long to produce roughly four paragraphs of content is absolutely hilarious.
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- Story was an afterthought
That pretty much sums up ME2
Unusual for Bioware to put story on the backburner. I'm a huge Bioware fan, and the original ME is one of my favorite games primarily due to its story - however this game will probabaly end up being my biggest dissappointment of 2010 because I feel they let one of their biggest strengths become a a less important focus.
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I enjoyed the rest.
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In this one you really get the sense that these are individual people that have their own agenda. Sure saving the galaxy is important.. but lets face it real people will find something to b*tch about even if this were really happening.
The worst part for me was honestly the lack of lewt. I'm no lewt whore by anymeans but I had a Assult Rifle in Mass Effect 1 that through my mods generated no heat what so ever. So how come the humans and other civilizations took the Geth idea of heat clips instead of mine with infinite shots?
Other minor gripes were regards to the codex. The stage music you were on blared through the menu, so trying to listen to the codex entries was sometimes impossible unless you ran to an area with lighter music. And you can tell the codex entries from the first game were recorded at different quality levels than the newest ones.
Over all this one was impressed with its play through.
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Unless this is just meant as "Garnett's personal opinion," rather than a standard review. In that case, carry on.
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They also avoided a common RPG trap - namely, letting you futz around before triggering the final confrontation (even if the sense of urgency has been ramped way up at that point). Once your crew gets kidnapped, you can hold off and go around doing other stuff for a while, but if you do, they die. So they get kidnapped, and you feel like you should go get them back immediately... and if you don't, you don't get them back at all.
Ultimately, ME2 was the second game in a trilogy, and had to deal with all the usual problems associated with that. I think focusing the story on the characters was the right choice, especially because they did such a fantastic job fleshing them all out.
The mining was tedious as hell though.
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Props Mr Lee!
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I really really enjoyed playing it... then after I looked around and said WTF? Aside from Tali's loyalty story, nothing had an effect on the greater galaxy. Its like they spend so much of the time carrying events over from ME1, that they forgot to setup similar events for ME2. And I'd really like if the loyalty missions we'ren't so videogamey obvious. Could some of them be written into the overall story? So jarring otherwise.
That said, when everything is being done right, it's oh so right.
The lower difficulties are NOT what this game is meant to be. Play this game on INSANITY for the experience BioWare was aiming for. It is one of the most enjoyable challenges I have ever came face to face with in a PC game of late.
Play it on INSANITY - skip the lower difficulties. It is a totally different game. Fire fights that took 30 seconds and no strategy on normal can take 10+ minutes on Insanity. You hardly notice the gameplay on the lower difficulties but on insanity the game truly shines. A skill you would of found no reason to use on lower difficulties becomes impossible to play without. Barrier/Armor/Shields become strategic layers you must strip away before killing every foe in the galaxy, rather than just different color bars.
I was minutes from the end of the game but I was so tired and bored with it. I decided to try another class just to give it a shot.
INSANITY MODE IS THE ONLY WAY TO PLAY.
Please, for anyone who did not like this game's combat - do yourself a favor right now and change it to INSANITY.
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In part one it always felt like an option that fitted my character, it evolved naturally over the course of the game. I couldn't be mr nice guy and then punch someone in the face in the next minute. Mass Effect 2 somehow has a very formularic approach, it feels way more video-gamey in that regard. Instead of playing the role of my character and feeling immersed into the game I get a message telling me to hit RT to punch faces. that was ok in God of War as it doesn't get any more VIDEOGAME than that but Mass Effect was a whole different ballgame and more along the line of Deus Ex.
as it was with Mass Effect 1, the parts which weren't as good stand out a lot just because the game is so fricking good. In a lesser game they could even have been positive aspects. Mass Effect 2 is an amazing game.
and to the question if it's better than part one; I guess it depends if you prefer the covershooting gameplay or atmosphere, story and immersion. I still think nothing else in both games beats the citadel in ME1.
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BUT, the world was so beautiful, and such a joy to explore, that even with all its shortcomings it's truly a thing to behold. I'm still kind of shocked at the quality of the graphics and voices.
If they could make an MMO with such quality, I would never leave the game.
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