Review: Mass Effect 2

The galaxy needs your help once again and it's up to you, Commander Shepard, to save it. With huge improvements and a great new story, Mass Effect 2 is already a contender for game of the year.

To begin with, I loved the way everything moves from Mass Effect 1 to 2. This is one of the greatest boons for planning ahead. Bioware decided this was going to be a trilogy from the start, and it really shows in ME2. There are seemingly minor decisions in ME1 that can come back to help or haunt in 2, and we'll be seeing them in ME3 as well. This gives the game such a level of depth, one that you wouldn't find anywhere else. It made me think of the long term consequences of my actions. Should I piss this person off? Should I kill this person? Having seen what can come in ME2, from my decisions in the first game, I can honestly say I thought differently about my actions.

This time around the story is much darker and harsher than the first game. Human colonies are being taken; no-one in the citadel is willing to consider what's going on. It seems that the whole universe is against you, even the people who are working with you. This also is reflected in the art and aesthetics of the game. It still shares that curved, alien beauty of the first game. It still has the futuristic vehicles, races and weapons, that aesthetic that makes you feel like this is the future. ME2 adds a level of dirt and grit to the whole universe. It's dark, dirty, rusted, harsh and far more moody. It matches the situations in the game perfectly, you feel as though the universe is starting to decay. It's your job to stop it. And stopping it was a ton of fun.

The combat is totally different than the first game. The shooter elements have been improved. The RPG elements have been streamlined. Gone are the inventory system and the Mako, instead it's a simple drop off system via a shuttle. The combat feels great, except for a bit of stickiness when moving in and out of cover. I had some moments where I couldn't get out quickly enough and I died, but that rarely happened. They also added ammo to the weapons, which makes you think about your weapon choices, instead of spamming one weapon constantly.

The hacking is also improved, moved into two types of minigames. They're actually pretty fun mini games. Not too hard, and they offer decent incentives to learn how to do. Also, anyone can do them, which is much better than Dragon Age: Origins, where only a rogue could unlock chests.

The side missions are also greatly improved over the last game. No more running around on the Mako. Also missing are the slow elevator scenes from the first game. I'm actually surprised I like the new scenes as much as I do. Instead, it's a motion graphic related to whatever you're doing at the time. Going down a floor on your ship? It shows you moving down. It's much better to look at than before. Now you either find them by scanning planets while mining, or by doing the far more interesting loyalty missions for your crew. Each location is different, and feels different. You get a real feel for each character and location, and it fleshes out the story in places that were lacking in the first game.

Another interesting thing that Bioware did, was with the disk swapping. Mass Effect 2 is on two disks. This, normally, would make me cringe. However, they changed the format into something that worked really well. Instead of switching in the middle of the game, once you complete the very beginning stuff, then you switch. That way you don't switch again till the very last mission. This doesn't interrupt you at the very middle of all the action. I hope more games take this route, because it worked fantastically.

While I think pre-order content in general is ok for a game, as long as it doesn't give someone a major advantage in multiplayer or totally warp the game, the pre-order content for Mass Effect 2 was a little... odd and annoying.

First and foremost, I got the Collectors Edition and Gamestop pre-order bonuses. This included the Collectors rifle and armor, the terminus assault armor and the M-490 Blackstorm Projector. I also had the Blood Dragon armor from Dragon Age: Origins, and the downloadable masks that you got from Dr. Pepper. That's a ton of stuff to be starting off with, but I did it to get an edge. The problem is I used the Terminus armor for most of the game until I had sufficient money to get all the general upgrades. Even then, it was only because I could customize my look with the standard armor that I decided to change.

The Terminus armor, which I used most of the time, would often get in the way of dialogue and cut scenes. There'd be a huge black shoulder plate in front of someone’s face when I was talking to them. This was exceptionally distracting. Also distracting, was the fact that my helmet didn't come off at all during dialogue scenes. I was either masked or bobbing around in what was supposed to be an emotional scene, and it looked goofy. Why not have an option to remove the helm during dialogue? I want to see my Shepard's face when he tells someone to go screw themselves.

The Blackstorm Projector was also pretty damn powerful. The heavy weapon would shoot black holes and take out huge groups with ease. That's great and all, except I got it right off the bat; the balance was a little lacking. Granted, I couldn't spam the thing, due to the inclusion of ammo this time around, but it was still my most used heavy weapon, until late in the game.

There were three other annoyances I had with the game. First, was the mining and the upgrade system. While I loved upgrading my weapons, because I was pretty necessary, I hated that I had to find the schematics for everything. Now, I can understand buying them from the shops, that’s fine. What I had a problem with, was the schematics that were found during the loyalty missions. If you missed one, you couldn't find it anywhere else, thus screwing the progression of that weapon. I was only able to fully unlock three of my weapons, because somewhere along the line I missed an upgrade. This then stopped me from purchasing the other upgrades for that weapon, because I needed the one more unlocked upgrade. That is, unless I missed something entirely. If so, why was it so hard to find?

Then comes the mining. While nowhere as annoying as running around in the Mako in Mass Effect 1, it was tedious and boring. Sure, getting the materials for upgrading makes sense. But it becomes so damned tedious to farm out entire planets just for a little bit of Platinum. I did end up upgrading everything I could, so of the thirty hours I play, a good five or so of them were just me mining planets. If the scanner moved faster, even after being upgraded, or there were some other way to get the materials, it would have been much better.

Finally, my last problem lies within the skipping of dialogue/cut scenes. There were times when I had heard everything someone had to say, or died and had to go through more dialogue options to get to where I needed to go. Pressing X would skip through these with no problem, until you got to a dialogue option and chose whatever was highlighted. Would it be so hard to make the button do nothing when it got to that point? Surely the developers would have thought that people would skip through dialogue, so is this some sort of punishment? I ended up having to re-load several times because I had chosen something I didn't want to do. Granted, I could also have waited through some of those cut scenes and dialogues again, but it became tedious.

Those gripes are rather minor, however, because Mass Effect 2 is an amazing game.

The character imports, awesome combat, great locations and side missions, awesome writing and characters plus a damn good story make Mass Effect 2 an early contender for my game of the year. I was constantly on my seat, moving the story forward, even if I had 10 hours more to play. It grips you and doesn't let go. It constantly adds little plot points along the way, feeding your addiction to the story, then hits you with a major plot point, and you're left reeling. It's intense. I've even had a few dreams with dialogue options in them. Hell, I don't often replay RPGs, but there have been a few. Mass Effect 2, will be replayed again... Once I get a renegade character up from Mass Effect 1. I've got a lot to play.

MSRP $59.99
CASRP $69.99 (I ended up splurging on the Collectors Edition)

CouchAthletics.com doesn't rate games with stars or percentage; we tell you what the game is worth to us. We paid for the game just like you will, or won't. We're telling you what we paid, and how much we feel the game is worth.

Finally, we've got the spoilers. If you want to know what I did in my game, check below the image. Remember, there will be spoilers!

SPOILERS

So, let me do a quick rundown of what I did in my game.

I was a male Shepard who ended up sleeping with Tali. I had done it with Liara in the first game, so I wonder what kind of intergalactic cat fight I just caused by doing that.

I ended at level 26, with only a few side missions left to do. I was a soldier. I loved the special ammo system they had for soldiers, it made them feel more versatile than in the last game.

I was full Paragon, with a decent chunk of Renegade thrown in. My Shepard was for intergalactic peace, but wouldn't take bullshit from people who screwed him over. He's a bad ass with a heart of gold. Also of note, I imported him from Mass Effect 1, with the Council alive.

At the end, I decided to tell the Illusive Man to shove it, and destroyed the Collector base. Sure, he brought me back, but I know he would go on a powertrip and try to take over the galaxy, and my Shepard doesn't play like that.

During the suicide mission I didn't lose anyone. I had Tali go through the ducts, while Garrus led the second team. I used Samara as my biotic barrier, as she seemed to be the most powerful. I finished with Legion and Miranda, blowing the living hell out of the baby Reaper.

So, I've got the Geth on my side (I reprogrammed Legion's wayward brothers), the Rachni from the first game, and hopefully the Council and Alliance. But, I've got a pissed off Illusive Man and the Reapers coming in. I can't wait for Mass Effect 3.

 What did you guys end up doing?