I’m a big fan of the first mass effect, it changed they way I think about RPGs. So unsuprisingly I was pretty excited to dive into the sequel. It didn’t disappoint, and though it’s not perfect it a very early, very strong contender for game of the year.
Take all the things that mass effect did and double them and you roughly have what Mass Effect 2 is. Literally everything is improved upon over the previous version. I’m a big shooter fan so for me it was the improved mechanics area that most shone through. I still think they need to pull the camera out more, give you unlimited sprinting, and a roll/evade maneuver for those “oh shit” moments. Basically rip off Gears and other successful 3PS games a bit more.
One of the things (if not THE thing) that Bioware is known for is offering choice to the player. Me2 drives this point home with a ton of choices peppered throughout the game and a whole lot of foreshadowing. If you try to play it just as a game and don’t allow yourself to become drawn in and make decisions as your character would you’ll see that reflected very strongly in the outcome of the game. Most of you party members will die, most likely including you. The stakes are high, so this time it’s no joke.
There are flaws though, the game at it’s core is good but some of the side-mission and other extraneous stuff still feels weird. Mining is improved but still isn’t a whole lot of fun, and the same goes for the hacking mini-games, much better than last time but still no fun. I’m not sure what the ideal solution here is, maybe just get rid of the hacking and have players gain resources by doing combat on unexplored planets instead? Sounds like it would be an improvement to me. In the end though all this stuff is secondary and unless you are a completionist you hardly even have to delve into it.
My favorite single moment in the game has you play as someone other than Shepard for a couple of minutes and I thought it was a really cool moment. There’s a lot of stuff like that in the game where I was just really impressed with how they went about telling the story. As a whole the industry is headed toward more involved story telling and I’m glad that ME2 is on board.
I play so many games that most of the time when I finish them I just want to be done. So it’s really refreshing when I found myself immediately starting a “new game plus” on insanity. ME2 is a fun ride with a ton of content and you should do whatever you can to get your hands on it.
