Mass Effect 2 Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on January 27th, 2010

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While this is an RPG at heart, the game's approach to combat has been refined so that even fans of standard 3rd Person Shooters will find much to applaud here. You aim and fire your weapons in real-time, pausing the action only to pull up a biotic wheel from which you can deploy, say, an armour breaking technology. Once again, BioWare succeeds in giving the sense of playing a tiny part in a gigantic galaxy, and the freedom to chase side-quests off in any direction gives the game an exciting focus on non-linear exploration and discovery. With numerous call backs to the first game (especially if you import your save data, ensuring that the game references many of your past decisions) Mass Effect 2 will be most rewarding to veterans of the debut. But BioWare's skill and ambition ensures that newcomers too will be immediately drawn into this world and its characters. A sublime experience, Mass Effect 2 reaches for the stars, and, for once, succeeds in grasping them.

The game takes relatively minor events like those and creates such a thrilling mosaic it defies you to remain emotionally detached. If you doubt that, just wait until you receive a thankful e-mail from the family of someone you saved or have to explain your recent actions in an ambush television interview. That kind of attention to detail breathes life into (Mass Effect 2) in a way that very few games achieve.

Once (Mass Effect 2) has you in its clutches, you'll be desperate to learn how it will all turn out.

Now I'd be lying if I were to say this game is perfect, which it isn't. Some glitches come into play here and there, controls can be touchy or not precise enough at times, and the other blah, blah, blah that comes with most games. In defense, the game doesn't deserve someone to critique it over what it didn't accomplish or any small insignificant issues that pop up on that rare occasion. This is a game that deserves the merit upon its entire package. With that being said, Mass Effect 2 will not only go down as one of the best gaming experiences you could ever have, but may finally let some gamers let go of the past and instead of saying, "the developers of KOTOR" all the time, they may rejoice in the fact that they can proudly exclaim, "the developers of the Mass Effect saga." This is a series that deserves its own place in gaming history and while there will always be comparisons of where it originated from. It's nice to know that there can be a story told in space that is so epic, so intelligent, and so rewarding, that doesn't have to have the word "Star" in its title.

Even with its problems, Mass Effect 2 is still a great game. The RPG elements may have been toned down to make way for a heavier emphasis on the action-packed gameplay, but the epic nature of the game's plot, its memorable characters, its solid cover-based shooter mechanics, and its presentational polish make this sequel a better overall game than the original. Simply put, this wolf is worth owning.

The cost of your actions will reverberate beyond the climatic ending of the game, too. Just as imported save games from the first game have significant effects on how certain missions are scripted and play out in Mass Effect 2, the consequences of your choices here are compounded to shape the direction of the final act of the trilogy a game development achievement that boggles the mind.

Mass Effect 2 sets a new high standard for action-RPGs. Whether you're familiar with the Mass Effect mythology or not, it's a gaming experience that shouldn't be missed.

Like Gene Roddenberry's TV series, BioWare's sci-fi saga is hopeful for the future of humanity. It suggests we'll always deal with issues of prejudice, face moral quandaries and struggle against dark forces, but that, as a species, we'll find a way to muddle through. More than that, it implies that these struggles are what make life interesting and worth living, and Mass Effect 2 worth playing.

So did Bioware surpass Mass Effect 1? Without any doubt, Mass Effect 2 surpassed ME1. Outdoing the previous installment of a game is an easy task with newer technologies. It's the non-technical parts that are difficult to overcome. Mass Effect 2 has the kind of story that could outshine any big budget movie, but unlike many games that have a great story, ME2 has a cast that makes it come together. When playing this game, you're thinking to yourself that Bioware cannot get it any better than this. And for those that played the original, you're reminded that you, too, thought that the next game could not better. But it was better, and the future for the Mass Effect series is now firmly a part of those series that are considered the best that videogames has to offer.

Newcomers eager to join the Mass Effect bandwagon may not be able to appreciate every tiny detail and easter egg BioWare squeezed into ME2, but the game has an obvious surface appeal that widens the net beyond the developer's most dedicated followers. It's a smooth marriage of genres; despite its action-driven play and obvious simplifications, the series remains an RPG at the very core.

With a whole new cast taking the stage, the galaxy falls into your hands once more. Simply knowing the impact that your actions can make elevates the entire experience to a personal level, and its greatness lies in that intensity. Mass Effect 2 is, simply and absolutely, beautiful.

If I had to nitpick two areas where ME2 disappointed me, it would be the optional planetary exploration hands down the worst part of the first game and, despite an overhaul, the worst in the second and the aggravating mini-games that you need to work through in order to hack computer terminals.

These two weaknesses represent a pretty small fraction of the overall experience. Bioware, whose remarkable consistency in churning out quality entertainment makes them the Pixar of the videogame world, deserves heaps of credit for Mass Effect 2, no matter how you choose to play it.

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