NOTE: There are some minor spoilers in this review. If you don’t want to read it, know that it has a really, really high score. With that said, let’s get to the review:
The first Mass Effect was nothing short of a masterpiece and was ultimately my 2007 Game of the Year (you bunch of BioShock lovers, you). It set the bar so high for storytelling and world immersion that it had not been equaled by any game since.
Until now, of course. Mass Effect 2 takes everything that made the original great and tweaks it ever-so-slightly while giving a major overhaul to the few aspects from the first game that didn’t quite work. If you don’t read anything else but this opening paragraph and the obligatory score at the bottom, know this:Mass Effect 2 is not perfect. But it’s pretty damn close.
Story, Universe and Characters
The first twenty minutes of the game boil down like this: You’re on the SSV Normandy with the rest of your crew from the first Mass Effect. The ship comes under attack by an unnamed enemy and Shepard ultimately goes down with the ship. You are, for all intents and purposes, dead as shit.
Until you’re suddenly not.
As it turns out a group called Cerberus has found your carcass and decided that rather than let the galaxy’s most badass Spectre die like a punk, they would rebuild him; make him better, stronger, faster the exact same as he was before he died. The story picks up two years later with the newly resurrected Shepard waking up in a Cerberus labratory and, after escaping, meeting the leader of the group who is known only as Evil President Bartlett The Illusive Man, who both is voiced by and looks quite similar to Martin Sheen.
Mr. Man informs Shepard of an impending threat to the whole of the universe and recruits him to fight for humanity. As a sign of good faith, Shepard is given a new, larger version of the Normandy and Shepard sets out to recruit the most bad ass badasses from every corner of the Milky Way.
You have ten characters (eleven if you download Zaeed) who join your party. In addition to the mission that you go through to recruit them, every character has a “loyalty mission” that the player can choose to play out. These missions work to shine a little light on each character’s past and opens up new options for your squad and new upgrades for your ship. I must give much respect to whoever penned the “loyalty mission” for Jack, as it is one of the best single-mission stories I have ever played in any RPG. Ever.
The squad is, to me, BioWare’s crowning achievement as they finally create a full cast of characters that you care about. In games like the first Mass Effect (Kaiden), Dragon Age: Origins (Sten) and even Knights of the Old Republic (Juhani), there was always that one character that you just didn’t like. Juhani was annoying as hell while both Kaiden and Sten were boring. Mass Effect 2 has given us a full cast of interesting characters that you will actually come to care about — especially the characters that return for a second go ’round.
Another big improvement in the writing is the dialogue. In the first game the dialogue had a tendency to become somewhat long-winded, dragging on and on and on until finally you’d find yourself pressing the X-button over and over again hoping to get to the point, which you ironically skipped over. This time around the dialogue is sharp enough to keep you interested the whole way through. At times it can be quite witty, as well; namely anything that comes out of Joker’s mouth. Joker’s conversations with EDI, the Normandy‘s AI, are especially entertaining. Sure, one or two characters may still drone on and on but two characters is much better than the dozen-plus characters that didn’t know when to get to the damn point.
The story, as a whole, is expertly written and perfectly paced. Another one of the few minor faults with the original Mass Effect was that the story started strong, ended strong, but had a whole lot of nothing in the middle. That has been rectified in ME2 by including the occasional story-centric mission that cannot be skipped. While this is a good way to keep the plot feeling fresh and avoid those long periods where you don’t feel like you’re advancing the story, there’s a point in the game where you are more or less forced to enter the final mission. If you aren’t prepared and need to go to the Citadel or Omega to ensure you have everything you need you will be punished. That’s all I’ll say.
There are also missions scattered about the universe. Many of them revolve around Cerberus operations while others deal with good ol’ fashioned randomness and gang killin’. Even here you can see that the developers have put great time, effort and care into making sure that every aspect of the game is as cinematic and grandiose as possible.
The game world, which happens to be the whole of the Milky Way, almost plays a character in itself. From the cleanliness of the Citadel to the grimey alleyways of Omega and the countless explorable worlds inbetween, each world and every vessel has its own unique look and feel that will beckon for you to explore just a little bit more before putting the controller down.
Combat and Character Gameplay
The biggest complaint against the first game was the combat, which wasn’t anywhere as close to being fleshed out as the rest of the game. BioWare recognized this and it is obvious from the first firefight (which happens very, very early) that they spent a good amount of time fixing the many complaints people had.
For one, there is actual ammunition instead of the redundant “cooldown” system that bogged the combat down the first time around. There are only two types of ammo in the game: general ammunition that is shared by the majority of the weapons you are armed with, and heavy weapon ammo that is used for the more powerful weapons in the game (including a pretty bitchin’ mini-nuke launcher that’s seemingly right out of Fallout 3). The ammunition is in ample supply so there isn’t much of a worry about running out until the final act, where you’re flooded with wave after wave of enemies.
Oh, and “Insanity” mode, which is aptly named. Trust me.
Each weapon has an actual target reticle now, rather than the circular reticle of varying sizes. These reticles are quite useful for the new location-based damage system. You target an ememy’s legs and they’ll topple over. You shoot their arms and you have a Black Knight situation occuring. It also adds a degree of difficulty to the fights as you try to hit certain weak spots on your targets.
Mass Effect 2 also utilizes the all-too-familiar cover system that is seen in countless games but everyone (inaccurately) refers to as the “Gears of War mechanic”. Unlike most games, which do it poorly, Mass Effect 2 actually handles the mechanic pretty well. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but it performs more than adequately at keeping your ass out of the fire. The problem with the cover mechanic is that it isn’t entirely “sticky” enough to work properly when you’re in a tight spot. One of the biggest problems is that when you’re trying to jump over a barrier you have to first squat down behind it before jumping over. If you’re trying to dive behind cover because your shields are down you will DIE. Sure, death acts as a minor inconvenience since the game autosaves every few minutes, but all the same.
Overall the combat is much better than the first game and is actually a blast to play.
Apart from leveling your character and other party members, there isn’t too much about Mass Effect 2 that screams “role-playing game”. Your weapons and armor screens (which can only be used at certain times and at certain stations) are very streamlined — which is good. The game also converts items you don’t need into currency, which… well, you know what currency does. Other than that, it plays like a shooter with a really good story.
Exploration and Resource Gathering
Much like the real universe, the universe of Mass Effect is quite expansive with countless nebulas, clusters and solar systems to explore. While you will visit some systems to progress the story or complete loyalty missions, most of the time you’ll find solar systems to be barren except for planets that can be rich in minerals. Minerals are a vital component to upgrading equipment and can be obtained by either finding them during a mission or by scanning planets…. and this is where the fun abruptly stops.
The scanning of planets for resources in-game is painful. It’s tedious, time consuming and your targeting reticle moves entirely too damn slow — but you have to do it in order to gather enough resources to max out all of your equipment. After a while I stopped scanning planets, mostly because if I hadn’t I would have punched a baby. I would have gone to my neighbor’s house and asked for some sugar. When they went to grab the sugar I would have sneaked into the house, found their newborn and punched it in its baby mouth.
You also have to scan planets to find the location for non-scripted missions, then launch a probe to access the mission. At least for this you’re notified that there is a mission and given a white pointer to follow.
The scanning wouldn’t be so bad if the reticle moved even just a little bit faster. As it stands, it’s horrible. But at least it’s still better than having to drive around in the Mako.
Presentation
Mass Effect 2, while not changing much in terms of in-game visuals, is still a gorgeous game. Character animations have gotten much more life like and no two worlds look the same. Seriously, there isn’t much else to say as far as visuals go. The only things of note are the damn-near-lifelike facial aminations andd the pre-rendered cutscenes, which are gorgeous, but they look like they’ve been run through a buffer. It’s just plain weird.
The audio is simply perfect. Perfect. The music, whether it be thundering orchestral numbers or the low, organic drums that accompany The Collector’s, your enemies, the music never sounds out of place and, overall, carries a tone that makes it feel like it came out of Blade Runner.
In fact, from the Omega asteroid to the marketplace on the Citadel, there is more than a passing feeling that you’re playing through a world influenced by Blade Runner.
TL;DR
The image sums it up nicely. There’s nothing else I can really say… but if I were pushed… the first ten minutes are a joke. Brought back from the dead? C’mon. You’re BioWare — you’ve written some of the most compelling stories in modern gaming and the best you could come up with was some Six-Million Dollar Man-styled plot point? For shame, amigos. For shame.
Still, the other 20+ hours of the game are freakin’ awesome.
I disagree with you on some particular points (which I’ll outline in my own review later), but overall you and I see eye-to-eye: Good game. (And a good review to go with it.)
Also, was I the only one to get “dead air” during the end of Samara’s loyalty mission? It was like someone one had accidentally sat on the TV remote and hit the ‘Mute’ button. (I checked by replaying the mission; that wasn’t what happened. Same lack of audio files at the exact same moment as before.) If I hadn’t switched on subtitles (as my hearing is mostly shot anyway), I’d have been at a complete loss as to what was being said that first go-around.