Mass Effect 2 review

After a marathon session last night (and early this morning), I somewhat surprisingly finished Mass Effect 2.  I say surprisingly because I did not realize how close I was to the end of the game.  I would almost say that the game is too short unless you are like me and try to tackle every single mission.  If you do that, then the length is fine.  I won't get too much into the plot of the game or the game play.  What I will do is address what I liked and what I didn't like so much about the game.

As with the first Mass Effect game, the characters are top-notch.  They really are the highlight of the game.  Getting to meet your ship mates, recruiting others for your mission and  assisting them in personal matters is where the game really shines.  Only a couple of characters from the first game return for duty here, though there are some nice cameos throughout.  The conversations to be had with your ship mates can be quite revealing as well as compelling.  As in the first game, your character has a chance at romance with several of your team members.  In the first game I found myself shunning the attractive human woman because it turned out she was quite xenophobic.  I had a sweet romance with a female alien instead.  In Mass Effect 2, I surprised myself with the direction my heart took me once again.

The real-time battles in ME2 are fantastic.  You can use conventional weapons as well as tech weapons and "bio" weapons.  Some of the characters you recruit are really strong at different weapon types and it pays to mix things up.  When you go in to battle, you select 2 ship mates to join you, so choose wisely!  I myself liked to take someone who was good with conventional weapons and someone good with bio weapons.  As far as molding your own character, you can choose which weapon system to focus on as well.  I am old fashioned and I love conventional weapons, especially the sniper rifle.  But it is very possible to go through the game as a techie or a bio fighter. With all of these possibilities, combat is usually pretty varied throughout.

Research is a vital component of the game.  If you want better weapons, armor, ship components, etc., you must find the data and have your scientist do research.  Actually producing the items or upgrades requires resources which are located on planets throughout the system and can also be found in small quantities during mission.  This brings me to the first negative part of ME2.  To find large amounts of these resources, you must scan planets for them and launch mining pods when you locate the resources.  This becomes quite tedious very quickly.  It can easily take up to an hour if you really want to go out and find a lot of material.  It's just not fun and it seems like a waste of time.  Even after you get an upgrade to speed up the process, it is still too slow in my opinion.

The game can also feel repetitive when recruiting characters.  Now, this is the best part of the game, so let me explain what I mean.  After you recruit enough characters to complete the mission, you can continue the main mission.  DON'T!  There are still more characters to recruit.  Get them all, as they are all terrific and worth having on your team.  What I mean by repetition is this: after you successfully recruit a character, he/she will come to you a little while later with a personal mission they would like to carry out.  You don't have to do these, but completing them makes the characters loyal to you so they are worth while.  And the missions themselves are great.  It's here where you really learn in-depth about your squad mates.  It's just that you know you are going to end up doing this for every one of your recruits if you wanna play the game to it's fullest.  So there's definitely an "Okay, I have 3 more of these character missions left" feeling after a while.  Still, it's well worth it and extends your game time.

During the final parts of ME2 you will make life-or-death decisions.  What I loved about this was that it wasn't obvious what you were choosing.  In the original Mass Effect, you had to choose between 2 characters, which would live and which would die.  There is nothing so obviously black and white like that here.  You make choices and there are consequences one way or another.  I was very happy with the way mine turned out; in fact it couldn't have worked out any better in my opinion.  I'll be happy to share what happened with anyone who has completed the game. Otherwise it would be spoiler city.

There is already some downloadable content for the game.  I got it free for pre-ordering the game but I will tell you that it is worth it alone just for the character of Zaeed Massani, a ruthless assassin that will join your team if you help him complete a mission.  He's a terrific character, straight out of a grade A Hollywood movie and I used him quite a bit.  Highly recommended.

So Mass Effect is a very successful Sci-Fi space opera RPG.  The characters are superb; I must make special mention of the voice acting which is outstanding in every regard.  The story is well told although it is very tech heavy and will make a lot more sense to those who have played the first Mass Effect game.  There are a few negatives here and there, so it's not perfect by any means.  But it is one hell of a ride, a fantastic story and a rip-roaring adventure.

And if you see Jack, please tell her I said hi.