MrNepathy's Blog

The original Mass Effect is not only one of my favorite role play games of all time, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. So to say I was eagerly awaiting Mass Effect 2 is putting it mildly. When I put in disk one of the sequel of the space epic, it asked me if I wanted to import my character from Mass Effect. It detected any completed game files and loaded up my character without incident. The face, background and events of Mass Effect were imported. I had the option to alter my appearance and skills. Plus during the training I was questioned as an in-game memory test about events of Mass Effect. I’m not sure if my answers helped re-shape the events or if the characters would have corrected me.

The game opens with the Normandy under attack by an unknown ship. Something about the weapon and the chase reminded me of the Reavers firing at the Serenity in the “leaf on the wind” scene. It was just a giant beam ripping at the Normandy as Joker tried to dodge it. You have to navigate the ship to escape and then two years pass. Your character wakes up in an independent facility and since you’re Shepherd and life is never easy, the facility is under attack. Next thing you know you’re face to face (kind of) with the Illusive Man, voiced by Martin Sheen.

The galaxy, it would seem, is in chaos. In fairness I should point out that a lot of the chaos was caused by how I played Mass Effect. In my game I let the council die and gave humans a place on it. That apparently caused a lot of anti-human sentiment. I guess some people aren’t cool with using high explosives as a sort of “gerrymandering” technique. Maybe those people shouldn’t trust me with the fate of the galaxy. Some people that played nice with others in Mass Effect might have a different experience on places like the Citadel. In a second play through I created a Mass Effect 2 character rather than importing a Mass Effect 1 character and it seems that letting the council die and putting Udina as a member of it is the default setting. So if you want to see what happens if the council survives, I guess you will have to play Mass Effect 1 and make that happen.

Though you will run into various party members from the original game, only two characters return as party members for Mass Effect 2. They’re Garrus and Tali. You meet them at unexpected times, so I won’t spoil those. Filling out the rest of your ranks is a collection of colorful individuals from the devout assassin to the monk-like justicar and the crazed lab-bred sociopath. Each character has a story and in order to get that character to be loyal you’ll have to delve into the each character’s background. Loyalty helps unlock new character-specific powers and improves your chances of survival. Even if it did nothing to help you, the loyalty quests are amongst the best missions in the game. Some of them are emotionally impactful. Bioware has created a bunch of interesting characters and they really shine in the loyalty missions. A few of the characters are fairly generic, like the mercenary/bounty hunter and “Subject Zero.” You’ve seen them in games or movies before, but their missions are still fun to play through. Frequently on these missions you’ll be asked to do some fairly awful things. The game does not pull punches when it comes to the dark underbelly of the galaxy and “humanity.” Also some characters do not mix well and will get into arguments at specific times. You will have to choose between one or the other. If your renegade or paragon scores are high enough, you can settle it another way. If you must choose between them, know that you will instantly lose the loyalty of the one you do not choose, so choose wisely. The difference between earning loyalty and not earning it may come down to dialogue options. For instance I tried to repeat what I did the first time when doing Grunt’s mission, but I made a few different dialogue choices. None of them were extremely different from my first run through, but it was enough that the second time I did not earn his loyalty. I can only assume that it’s because I was playing a nicer character, and so I was not aggressive enough for his liking.

In terms of your character, improvements have been made to the paragon/renegade system. In addition to dialogue options, you may encounter events that have moments where you can alter the scene. If the left trigger icon shows up, you can pull the trigger and do a noble deed. An example would be an NPC that is about to die. You can activate the paragon response and treat the character’s wounds. Similarly some events have a renegade option. You might be interrogating someone and they’re not quite cooperating. A pull of the right trigger when prompted might cause you to put your gun to the person’s head. Ignoring those options makes you take a middle of the road approach. I try to play through as evil and have to admit sometimes it’s difficult for me to not pull the trigger and do the good deed. But, I’m ruthless, so I find a way to let people suffer. Gone are the “charm” and “intimidate” skills from the original game. Now if you follow the path of the renegade you get the renegade options. Be good and you get the charm options. Straddle the line and you might get both.

The removal of charm and intimidate is just the first example of the streamlined presentation. The inventory system, which was ridiculous in the first to the point where I was hitting “convert to omni gel” every five loot drops just to keep my inventory clean, has been vastly improved. Now if you find a weapon, everyone in your crew that is capable of using the weapon type, has access to it and the game will automatically update party members with the best weapon when you start a mission. Missions themselves have also been made more efficient. Now if you find an anomaly on a planet you can go right to it. There’s no more riding around in the giant Big Trak (I love you Big Trak) dune buggy. Missions inside cities are handled usually by you arriving somewhere and then being whisked away to the mission area. When the mission is over you will usually get a “would you like to return?” option. Then you get a nice mission review report. One word of warning, while on a mission you are able to save a game, but when you try to load that game, you will get the “restart mission” option. The game won’t allow you to save at certain points and then alter your course. Or at least it did not on the one mission where I wanted to see both outcomes. There’s also no more staring at elevators for too long.

One thing that has not been streamlined, however, is materials. Instead of having to throw away your Striker IV when you get a Striker V and switching around all of the modifications, you can now research updates for your weapons. These updates can be bought or found. Updateable weapons are cool right? Well yes and no. The trade-off is the scanning. The endless scanning. Scanning works like this: Find a planet, rotate your cursor around the grid and if you’re smart, you’ll rotate the planet at the same time which doubles your scanning speed to “Still really freaking slow.” You’re playing “hot or cold” basically and then when your controller starts shaking like me giving a speech, you launch a probe. You’ll launch a lot of probes. Planets will be probed more than the monkeys in Project X. If you want resources, and you’ll want resources, you’ll have to do this. The reward is you can upgrade weapons, armor and your ship and maybe find an anomaly which leads to a side quest. It’s important to note some planets are not on obvious orbital paths and are found in asteroid belts. You can also find some materials in boxes while on missions. Both times I played through I updated my ship with every option, including the cannon, the shields and armor. These upgrades were mentioned in the cut scenes for the final mission, so I think they may have had an impact.

Hacking and bypassing have been upgraded from “Simon” to picture matching and concentration. Makes it a bit more fun, but the omni-gel override option is taken away, probably because you don’t have omni-gel.

Combat has been upgraded. Now you can hot-key three powers to the right bumper, left bumper and Y button. You don’t have to open the radial menu and keep remapping every two seconds like in the first installment. My only complaint is that I cannot remap the Y button. It seems to only work with the first power I had there. Unfortunately it’s not a power I use often any more. Ammo was also added to the equation and I think it’s a good addition. Now I’m encouraged to switch from one weapon to another because I can’t go crazy with my hand cannon all of the time. Also headshots matter more and aiming is more like a first person shooter. If it’s in your crosshairs when you pull the trigger, you hit. No more hidden dice rolls. Powers have also been modified. Now if you max out a power you can choose between two bonuses. An enhanced cover system has also been added making the shooting play more like Rainbow Six Las Vegas than the previous Mass Effect.

The voice acting and dialogue are outstanding. Between missions you can visit Joker, voiced by Seth Green, and ask what he thought of the last group of squad members you used. His answers were entertaining enough that I used every squad member at least once just so I could hear his short opinion of each. Characters seem to really come alive during the loyalty missions. You’ll hear anger, confusion, regret and loss. The hyperactive doctor, the cold justicar and the tranquil assassin are particularly good. There are a few nice sci-fi favorites in minor roles along the way as well.

The story is part of a trilogy and as this is the second act, it leans towards a darker side. Squad members can and will permanently die. My first run through I lost two characters because of choices I made. Even Shepherd can die at the completion of the game. All of these elements lead to a feeling that you’re taking part in an epic struggle. It’s a grand, sweeping experience. There’s also a major choice at the end that I think will greatly affect Mass Effect 3. I would say it’s not just the best science fiction game I’ve played in a while but it’s amongst the best science fiction stories I’ve witnessed. It makes me wish there were movies like this. I loved Avatar. It’s a fun but ultimately shallow and predictable experience. Where Avatar dazzles with visuals, Mass Effect 2 wows with story and characters, though the visuals are pretty as well. I highly recommend it to anyone with a 360 that loves science fiction epics or role play games. You’ll get more out of the experience if you’ve played the first because you’ll revisit some characters and get to take pleasure in how you affected the galaxy, but you can play this without playing the first. Final Fantasy XIII comes out this year and to win game of the year it will have to surpass this. The bar’s been set high and it’s barely 2010.

Note: For purposes of the review it should be stated that I played a female, biotech, renegade character that killed the council in Mass Effect 1 and established Anderson as the new head of the council. Those actions affected how the game was played. Other characters with different skills or that made different choices, might play through Mass Effect 2 differently. I played through a second time as a male, vanguard, paragon character.