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Mass Effect 2 Review
| GAME INFO publisher: EA developer: Bioware genre: RPG MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS n/a |
ESRB rating: M homepage: masseffect.bioware.com/ release date: Jan 26, 10 (released) |
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| » All About Mass Effect 2 on ActionTrip | ||
Streamlining the gameplay was the main goal of the development team. Every aspect of the experience was improved, from squad mate AI to space exploration. Your squad seems a lot more responsive this time around and they appear a lot easier to organize than before. Enemy AI is tougher, though occasionally still a bit flawed. We've seen foes stuck on different objects in the environment (on one occasion an enemy robot sank through solid ground like it was quick sand). These occurrences are infrequent and nothing you should get upset about. It's nothing a patch or two won't fix.
One of the biggest gameplay changes is the omission of the tedious and rather time-consuming planet exploration from ME 1. You won't be hopping into the Mako and spending hours surveying similar looking planets and uninteresting uninhabited worlds. As a result, the mission structure has improved tremendously, making each side quest worthwhile and hell of a lot more interesting than in the previous game. Searching across different worlds eventually leads you to planets you can land on and take part in specific missions. Furthermore, every mission brings a brief new story into play. An important part of space travel, this time around, is inspecting many star systems in an effort to accumulate resources. Your ship now has limited fuel supplies and other necessities that often require your attention. Believe me every precious metal you scout for is needed and can be put to good use via the research lab located on your ship. Scouting through each star system denotes scanning planets until you get the resources you need. Just scan, locate a resource, launch a probe and that's all it takes. It's quite a fun mini-game and it certainly beats the uneventful driving segments from the first game.
 Wait, didn't we...? |
 Charming guy. Really. Don't let his looks fool you. |
The team at BioWare also took great care with casting, making sure every character has an appropriate voice. During your ventures through the far regions of space, you may hear a lot of familiar voices. Among the cast are actors such as Martin Sheen (the series The West Wing, the flick Apocalypse Now, etc.), Carrie-Anne Moss (from The Matrix trilogy), Shohreh Aghdashloo, Seth Green, Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin, Keith David, Michael Dorn and others.
Despite of what a few people may think, by simplifying the gameplay in Mass Effect 2, BioWare has actually done a good thing for the series, ensuring an even broader appeal towards different audiences, in addition to making it a more enjoyable ride overall. More than that, this game is something people are going to talk about for many years to come. They may complete it and return to it because of the huge amount to events that could've played out differently if other choices were made throughout the storyline.
BioWare's work continues to amaze us with brilliant writing, exceptional direction and story presentation, and compelling gameplay. Most people will undoubtedly get swept away by Mass Effect 2 due to the sheer scope of the storyline, great characters and numerous choices you can make every step of the way. Everything BioWare did to improve the game has lead to satisfying results. Such efforts actually redefine how sequels should be made. This was one of the most memorable gaming experiences we've had in recent history.
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USER SCORE
9.1 YOUR SCORE RATE IT
 0.0 9.3 Excellent  HIGHSStreamlined gameplay, revised structure of side-missions, managing items and weapons is a lot easier and intuitive as is the character progression system, superbly told story, admirable attention to characterization and dialogue, incredibly immersive, great voice acting, noticeable visual improvements, thumbs up for the music and sound effects;  LOWSInfrequent AI bugs, not all gamers are into action, RPG elements were watered down and may potentially disappoint fans who prefer traditional RPGs the likes of Dragon Age (so, I guess they should go and play Dragon Age then, huh?). RATINGS GUIDE |
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| COMMENTS PAGE 1 |
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Single-player RPG or MMORPG?
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Enchantment?!?
After 6 hours of play, that's really my only qualm with the game. The story is, thus far, well told, the action is intense, and the visuals are excellent. Also, the game runs very smoothly, which is always a plus.
This is on the PC, mind you. Can't comment on Xbox360.
Loot, exploration and customization are 3 most important parts of a role playing game. Both of the recent bioware games lack all of them. Even the dialogue which seems their main focus is not in depth as is it should be.
It's just not what I've expected after Kotor and NWN.
I kinda miss the Mako though. It is like fully intact in the memorial site DLC. Why can't I salvage it.
You will soon be playing in front of a BIG screen with only 1 BIG shiny light with only 1 BIG button on your game controller. And you' be enjoying pressing that 1 button and t turning the light on and off until you drool all over your shirt and pass out.
What's with those RPG purist comments? Since I haven't played a good RPG for a long time I gave up on them. I just enjoy a good game. And I couldn't help myself, but had to check it. Yes I'm a dirty pirate, but a happy one nonetheless.
Love what they did with combat. More action is good from my perspective. The ammunition system is a welcome add-on. Also, the cover system is perfect for me. Leaping over an obstacle is fun, though sometimes troublesome and disorientating. I only want to see more destructible environment, more weapons and more tactical choices in ME3. If they're going action, go well damn it.
Story is still the main hero in ME2 for me. It's the thing that makes me want to shoot that guy. Shooting is important, but the right atmosphere is worth a lot more. That said the remaining RPG elements are there for the atmosphere. I don't consider ME2 to be an action RPG. More like an action game with RPG elements. If you're a purist, then you won't like that. But you have to be a total snob to not like the game. Yes, Un it's about you. The graphics are fabulous and I'm not even running them on full spec.
Oh man, I'm definately gonna buy it. Worth every penny indeed.
still much room for improvement though, need more spicing up with character personality....not quite as passionate as i would want them to be but the inclusion of sudden good/bad decision making creates immersion because it's somewhat unexpected.
farming needs to get the fuck out of the gameplay and more "fashionista" achievements put in.
like Bruce and Stardust said, making your character feel unique is what builds affection towards RPG games.
YOU LISTENING BIOWARE ? read this shit !
Since I can't play this yet, I've got one question about that first screenshot. Who is the hot soldier standing next to Miranda?
Does the game allow for the player-character to choose his strengths and weaknesses, and how they evolve over time? (e.g. the character-class of the player-character, and the subsequent class-build that develops from leveling up)
Does the game allow for in-depth interaction with NPCs? (e.g. extended dialogue and related narrative decisions)
If the answer to the above questions is yes, THEN IT'S A ROLE-PLAYING GAME, end of discussion.
Everything else is just a mater of details, regarding ultimately trivial gameplay mechanisms. Inventory or not, looting or not, such old standbys of the genre aren't actually the core of the genre, and never have been.
Bravo to BioWare's A-team for not being afraid to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Diablo-clone CRPGs aren't role-playing games. Not really. JRPGs aren't, either. How often do you make plot-altering decisions? When do you choose what to say to NPCs, and how to say it? The answer to both questions: never, or almost never.
MMORPGs have also confused people, because they're social role-playing, while true RPGs like Torment and Mass Effect 2 are narrative role-playing. An important difference. And yet many people fail to fully realize this, and think that the looting and grinding and such-like that are integral to the social experience of MMOs must carry over to single-player RPGs as well... but this is not so.
Narrative role-playing can choose to include such elements if it wishes; but if it chooses to fore go them, that's perfectly fine, because for narrative role-playing such gameplay mechanisms are purely extraneous.
Luckily I play it as a shooter with an interactive story........still a little disappointed though. I can help getting this feeling that I'm getting less rather than more. If ME1 had improve gun play and graphics it could very well be this game's sequel as opposed to prequel.
And that my friends are fucking ironic.
There were a couple of issues which spoiled my enjoyment of the game at times however; loading screens... just as long as the old elevator rides, now twice as dull and even more prolific. It gets particularly bad when you want to go do different stuff on your ship, which has 4 levels and requires a long-ass loading screen to get between each one, though they arent really that big and I have to wonder why they couldnt have been integrated into a single level.
My second issue was the vanguard class... Its biotic charge power is a total liability. Here's why : it can only be targeted on living enemies, does not do a whole lot of damage, puts you straight into the middle of a tactically vulnerable position from which you'll often die as a result unless you use it as a finishing move, and frankly there are any number of powers which serve as better finishing moves... biotic slam being the best from my experience. Worst still, the power can break the game because you can use it on ANY enemy, even those who are sniping on ledges or in other places you cant normally get to which means you can get stuck in them after a fight if you dont have an enemy left to charge out to.
The planet scanning while an improvement over the constant mako missions gets just as tedious, and you will have to do A LOT of it. The two new hacking minigames are also an improvement over ME1's button-matching game, though they are still too easy if you ask me, that is unless you account for artificial difficulty of mouse-lag if you are trying to do the pin-matching hack on a less than top-of-the-line PC.
A couple of highlights for me : I loved the surprise twist that gets you your final squad member, was not expecting that! I also found the 'gradually look more evil' thing they had going with the facial scars if you choose to go full renegade pretty cool.
Overall it was a pretty worthy sequel, I thoroughly enjoyed it, looking forward to giving it a second play-through.
1) Biotics: feels underwhelming, in ME1 you're almost a super hero literally standing up to hordes of baddies while coming out victorious. ME2 makes you alot more squishy and biotic feels weak.
2) Ammo: In ME1 you don't need ammo, it's unlimited. And bullet effects can be mod into the guns. From a story stand point ME2's Ammo and Gun mechanics are a technological retardation to ME1.
3) Guns and Armor: ME1's guns and armor can be modded with different upgrades, in ME2 you can as well but through a central system and less choices....also a retarded mechanic.
4) Loot: in ME1 there's a sense of surprise and wonder whenever you kill an enemy, you never know what they will drop..........this was taken away from ME2......
5) Exploration: The mako while it wasn't all it could have been is still more interactive and fun than the retarded planet scanning. Starcontrol a game made years before ME2 had better planet scanning. How can someone call the planet scanning an improvement to ME1 is beyond me.
In conclusion ME2 is a great game by itself, it just doesn't work too well as a sequel with so many contents cut from the first game instead of add to or improved upon both in logical (story purpose) department and gameplay mechanics.
It DOES deserve the 9.0+ rating but the issues I've listed should be acknowledge.
still think your score is too high for this game.
Also, when it comes to developers like BioWare or Blizzard, people just expect too much and as a result they get disappointed too easily sometimes.
2lions can be like that, for example. Right 2L?
giving it less that a 9/10 would imply it didn't try hard enough or that it didn't cater to demands for improvement over past faults and that is just not true.
i call to stand Sir Cheesecake, he remembers my "hate" for Mass Effect 1, this sequel rectified my displeasure towards Star Trek/Babylon5 fiction.
though not because it changed overall but because it turned out more alluring through a good story and somewhat interesting characters.
32 hours, didn't probe all planets but completed 99% of missions.
Miranda died, i think because she had her cat fight with Jack and didn't support her thus losing her loyalty.
women, screwy whether in a game or real life. they're all the same.
Tali is an animal with bodacious female forms despite her ankles pointing the wrong way.
most definitely will try to buy this game as soon as possible. credits where credits are due Biobitches, you made a good game.
This is a very very well done game. Not a big risk taker, but well done.
Yes RPG elements are extremely watered down, but if you think about it, this system seems most 'real'. Maybe thats not the best therm, but 'probable' is. How does one carry 100 different guns and armor with him? Of course such things would stay with the ship.
And I'm loving the ammo, which always makes things more interesting. Especially when you run out of it.
Little things like that give the game some probability and less fantasy, which is a nice deviation from the rest of sci-fi. Which I generally like about ME universe, not to take away anything from SW or ST. I like those in their own way.
The new class system is also a major improvement as well as teammate composition. Instead of always balancing the 'red blue and purple' bars, you pick teammates based on their unique combination of skills.
The thing I dont like is the planetary scan system. I might be in minority here, but I actually enjoyed Mako rides and the hostile phantom planet environment. Yes the random missions were boring, but they could have somehow integrated the personal exploration with the new mission composition.
That sweet middle spot between the old and this new system would have been perfect.
Anyway, absolute gem. gg
dont feel like playing me1 all over again!
Only downside is no sofa.