Mass Effect 2

This game was in my console the moment I finished the first one

Well, one thing that's instantly noticeable about this game is that the production quality is way up compared to the first one which is to be expected after the universal success of the first game and Bioware being bought by the notorious EA at the same time. I was apprehensive going into this game and seeing the Electronic Arts logo proudly flash up on the screen, but I don't think they really had so much of a massive effect on the game overall (see what I did there?)

As with most video game sequels, this game is much bigger than the first. The galaxy is bigger, the squad is bigger, the Normandy is bigger, the story-line is bigger. There are now more than a dozen star-systems you can travel to, which is way more than the few they had in the first game. Like the first game, most of them can't be landed on, but that's no surprise. The changes don't stop there. Mass Effect 2 is instantly recognizable when compared to Mass Effect. I respect a game that risks making changes like that, especially if the first game was successful already. Probably the most extreme example I can think of this was Assassin's Creed II which changed just about everything within the game possible without having it be a totally unrelated game.

All of the old characters from the first game make a comeback. It's disappointing to note that several of them play very minor roles in this game, Ashley Williams, Liara and Wrex all stay on their respective worlds and can only be interacted with via conversation. They just talk. I was a little disappointed finding that out but I got over it with the huge influx of new characters in this game.

Damn, son.

Most of them are just as intriguing as the ones from the first and some from the first are improved. One of the few characters I didn't much care for was the human, Miranda, who was kind of boring, but other than that they all get my approval. One of the ones I like more in this game is Joker as his character is elaborated on and he has much more to say.

Each character has a quest to recruit them along with a quest to gain their loyalty. I highly recommend doing every loyalty quest because while the rest of the game is largely unvaried combat, the loyalty quests are a great change of pace. One of my favorites of these was the Garrus quest. Through most of the game, your choices are somewhat black and white; you have the good guy way to do things and the bad guy way, but this one quest above the rest blurred the line between them and had me wondering weather the nice guy is always the right way.

The plot from this game is what you'd expect from the number 2 in a trilogy. It's the in-betweener, which is not a condemning thing to say about it. It's just the general rule for any number 2. It's less, for lack of a better word, epic than the other two. It's the necessary bridge between the first and third.That of course is not to say that this game is without action, in fact, I'd say it has more, but when you compare the first game's finale to this one's, the difference is clear.

I don't think it's a huge spoiler to say that Shepard basically dies right in the first cut scene of this game and is brought back to life by Cerberus during a process you soon find took a whopping two years.

Naturally, the characters from the first game have gone through many changes since then and seeing how they've developed is surprisingly rewarding to me. Garrus spent a lot of time doing mercenary work and thus is a more hardened and darker character than he was in the first. Liara has dropped her work on the Protheans and is completely absorbed by her obsession to find a villain called the Shadow Broker. Wrex has gone back to his home-world, Tuchunka, and is working on rebuilding it, and Tali is just Tali.

Fortunately, this game is much longer than the first whereas Mass Effect only took me fifteen hours, this one took me just under twenty-four. Testament to this is the fact that this game is stored on two discs. It's pretty rare to see that in games today and it makes you switch between them. It only told me to do so twice though, so don't be put off by the thought of having to move (God forbid).

Like I said before, this game is largely unvaried combat, which is a little disappointing. It's only slightly less tactical than the first game, which generally forced you into cover, this one, you can sometimes make do without it. One improvement over the combat of the first game is the way with which you manage your squad. In the first game you had several commands on your d-pad to tell your squad what to do, in this it's just a left or right tap to tell one of your squad members to go somewhere. It's simpler, much more straight forward and it works better. One thing I don't like all that much is the way health is displayed on your HUD. Shepard's health makes enough sense, but your squad's health is much more difficult to read. I liked it better in the first game where it was just bars. Don't fix it if it ain't broke as they say.

One of the major and instantly noticeable changes in combat is the fact that your weapons have ammo now whereas in the first game, they simply overheat after firing them in rapid succession. I'm still unsure over weather or not I prefer that to the first game. I don't like having to look around for ammunition as it sort of detracts from the main experience but it also forces me to use other weapons, which I like. I'm split.
One of the nice combat changes they made, when you try to get in cover near a squad-member, they'll intuitively get out of your way rather than just standing there and blocking the vantage point. Small detail, but a nice improvement.

Relationships with your crew matter more than ever in this game. Depending on how loyal they are to you, they'll have different abilities at their disposal that they can apply in combat. Just like the first game, you can take those normal relationships to the next level and become romantic with your squad-members. As far as that goes, there are many more options in this game compared to the first. In this one, Shepard can pretty much fuck anything that moves. I ended up with the Quarian, Tali, largely based on my curiosity over how that would even work. I've heard that in Mass Effect 3, Liara plays a much more central role, which makes me wonder how this love triangle is going to play out (hopefully, just as awkwardly as the Ashley/Liara one from the first one).

The sex scenes in this game are considerably less explicit than in the first game although, that too is none too surprising. The first game received a lot of public ridicule for it's 'graphic depiction of nudity and sodomy', which is somehow okay when it's in a movie with real people rather than a game with fake ones. Unfounded or not, it's a little disappointing to note that Bioware made that change, not because I want to see the sex scene but because it shows that Bioware will give in to that kind of reprobation. It bodes poorly for the future, but I doubt that Bioware would change anything that's not so controversial based solely on the public's bullshitting.

Technically speaking, this game has made great strides over the first. Expectantly  the graphics are a huge leap over the previous game and look amazing. Many of the issues that caused my bitching present in the first game are absent. For instance, the game's autosave feature is a massive improvement. Never once did I find myself frustrated over how far I was sent back after death, it worked just as well as I'd hoped it would.

Another great change is the navigation. With the first game, I would often find myself lost and running around aimlessly, hoping I had arbitrarily picked the correct way. Finding out where you need to go was a bother and it was all just kind of a mess. With this game, you can bring the map on the screen just by clicking the control stick. The map by the way is a huge improvement. Everything is labeled and it's shown all on one screen. No more panning around. If you don't want to look at the map you can click the control stick and have a little directional navigator pop up on your mini-map and remind you which way you need to go. Exactly what I'd asked for when I did the first review. How these two controls, the map and the navigator are on the same button, I'm not sure and I can't really describe how to differentiate, but I didn't have any issue. The nav is a little finicky and can be hard to follow, as it often freaks out and points you in strange directions, but any change over the first is a big upgrade.

Another nice change is the hacking process. The first game had you pushing specified buttons in rapid succession, but this game gives you two different kinds of hacking. One has you connecting matching symbols on a computer chip as fast as you can, the other has you selecting specified coding from a mass of scrambled codes within a time limit. It's much more fun and it's a much more creative idea.

The tank controls aren't in this one at all as that portion of the gameplay was taken out, for better or for worse. I can't say I miss it much, it was kind of useless to be driving around nearly barren planets like that, but it did succeed at changing up the gameplay once in awhile. Oh well.

Unfortunately, this game is much glitchier than it's predecessor and not the fun kind of glitchy. For a game that I'd expect to be riddled with glitches, Mass Effect hardly had any to speak of. Early in this game, I found that I couldn't advance through a level any further, simply because the game forgot to initiate that part somehow. I ended up having to restart the entire level, but it never happened again after that.

One of the strangest glitches I've ever seen was a recurring one in this game. Occasionally, when a character would speak during a level, their voice would get all distorted and slowed down. It took me forever to figure out what was causing this, but I found that it had something to do with weather or not I was sprinting at the time of the dialogue. I have no idea how that kind of glitch could exist and I've never seen anything like it before. It's funny until you realize that you're missing important dialogue and you don't know what to do.

Another weird thing that happens with the dialogue occasionally, is that certain things will get mixed up a little. When I did Miranda's quest, I naturally learned a great deal about her character and she acted kind of romancy towards me, but through conversations with her subsequent to that, she would tell me things I already knew and Shepard would act like he didn't know and she had brought the relationship back to square one (not that I cared).

There was one instance during a pivotal scene in a loyalty quest, where the sound cut out entirely. And no, it was not a technical issue on my part, bringing up the Xbox menu still prompted the little sound. Several seconds later, it randomly came back all at once. It never happened again, but it was weird nonetheless.

I don't much care for the new method of leveling up in this one. It's much less clear when you have ascended to a new level in this game whereas in the first one it just told you with a non-obtrusive message that would flash up on the screen. Here I never know, I just periodically check it. I also don't like the way you distribute skill points. In the first one, you could just put points wherever you wanted under one skill, but here you have to add more and more points to successively level the same skill. It's just over-complicating and I like having the freedom of the first and not having to stock points up.

Other than that, the only real complaint I can make is that I had some issues with taking cover during gunplay. It's a little finicky and it got me killed more than once, but it's not that big of an issue.

So is this game as good as the first one? Yes. Is it better? I'd say yes, but it'd be by a small margine. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. Due to the increase in action and lesser focus on being tactical, this game comes off as being slightly less intelligent than the first game, however I may just think that because I now already know the galaxy from my previous experiences.

As with any major design changes to a game I like, I was at first put off by the differences between the two, but I accept them both for what they are and they're both very, very good.

Can't wait to start number 3.

9.5/10 - Very good. Check it out.