Mass Effect 2 Review
The first Mass Effect came out on Xbox 360 in 2007 and was(in my opinion) the best RPG I played that year. So now it’s 3 years later and we have the 2nd installment in what is to be a trilogy. This game is good! Really good!! It improves on everything wrong with the first and(just like the first) puts most sci-fi movies released recently to shame.
The story takes place soon after the events of the first one, and puts you in cotrol of Commander Shepard. The opening cut scene starts you abord the Normandy and a hostile ship takes it out and Shepard is killed in the process. So Cerberus, a human oriented organization, picks up your body and rebuilds you over the course of 2 years, and this is just the first few moments of the game! They bring you back because a race called collectors are attacking colonies and must be stopped, I won’t get into too much detail so I won’t spoil anything, but the story is very strong in this game. You can also import your save file from the first game and the actions you made in the first one will come into effect in the 2nd one, which I thought was a nice touch.
The graphics are top notch! Some of the best on the 360. Though it takes 2 discs to do so, but i’ll get into that a bit later. You really believe these characters are real, and actually care about them. You know that when you care more about what’s going to happen to them then your real friends at the time. The voice acting aslo helps with the best voice acting around, as far as i’m concerned! Martin Sheen really steals the show as the Illusive Man. I was very impressed they got him for this game. Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) aslo lends her voice as Miranda, and Seth Green is back as Joker.
The gameplay has had an overhaul, but for the good. You no longer have a long list of abilities to upgrade and are reduced to about 4, and it takes more points to do so, which makes it easy to pick up and play. You also do not have to change armor or weapons, you just upgrage them in the ship. I actually used the Blood Dragon armor from Dragon Age the whole game(awesome armor by the way). The game has much better gunplay than the first did. It really plays more like a 3rd person shooter than an RPG. The side quests are also actually fun to do this time around. Your not doing the same thing over, and over like in the first one.
I only had a few problems with the game. The fact that it’s on 2 discs normally wouldn’t bother me. I played the first Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy games on the ps1 and didn’t mind. You start with the fist disc, play half the game, put in the second disc for the middle, and put back in the first for the end. I thought that an odd choice. Also, the mining of planets is ok at first, but it really gets old after a while, and you need to do this to make it through the end of the game with upgrading your ship and teammates. These minor flaws really do not take anything away from the game though, they’re just worth noting.
I know that it is only March, but this game has my game of the year vote as of right now. We’ll have to see if God of War 3 delivers to try and sway it. It took me about 30 hours to beat, so it has some length to it. To me, this is much more than just a great game. It’s a great piece of entertainment, and shows people what Bioware is really made of. Simply put…it’s a Masterpiece!
5/5
