Spoiler Danger: Low
The Good:
+ Great characters
+ Much improved combat
+ No more texture pop in
The Bad:
- Some RPG elements were cut
- Not as much focus on the overarching story
It’s taken me a long time to getting around to blogging my review for Mass Effect 2. In a way, I’m glad it did take me so long, because my opinion of the game has changed in a few key ways over the past few of months. At first, I loved it, then I was a bit disappointed, and now I’m back to loving it. I’ve played all the way through it three different times, and I’ve had three wildly different experiences to talk about.
The introduction to Mass Effect 2 takes place a mere couple of months after the conclusion of the first game. The prologue is jaw dropping. I studiously avoided previews of the game, didn’t read any reviews, so I didn’t know anything about ME2 going in. I’ve heard that many people were expecting the events of the prologue, and I am sorry if you did. Having gone in blind, I was lift gaping at the screen, asking my TV “WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!?!” in between the “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.” I want to write about it, just so I can delve into why I had such a strong reaction, but I can’t bring myself to spoil it for the 2 or 3 people reading this who may not have played the game yet.
In terms of the rest of the story, it’s much… slower… than the story from the first game. It’s readily apparent that this is the second part of a trilogy in that BioWare spends more time focused on the development of the new characters than on the forwarding of the overarching story. That’s not to say that there is no story progress, as there are a couple other jaw dropping moments peppered throughout the game, but it wasn’t quite as story-centric as the first game.
Instead, BioWare chose to focus on the characters. At first I was quite disappointed that most of your team members from the first game were relegated to cameos. Garrus and Tali both rejoin you (and both are up for romantic options as well, if you were into the human/alien thing in the first game). Your love interest, regardless of who it was in the first game, does not return in a role other than as a cameo (unless you allowed that person to die on Virmire, in which case, he or she is still dead). So, you are free to pursue whatever romances most suit you.
My disappointment with the original characters all but disappearing had very much to do with the fact that they were developed so well in the first game. With the exception of Alistair from Dragon Age, Mass Effect has the best and most realistic group of party characters in gaming history. And then came Mass Effect 2. True, most of the originals weren’t there, but that means very little in the face of the wonderful new characters you become acquainted with in your journeys.
There are a few notable ones, including my favorite non-Shepard character in the game. Their name is Legion, and they are Geth. Legion is by far the most BA character in the game. Why? Well, for starters, he’s Geth. The first game did a very good job of painting the Geth to be a very evil race of AI drones; the only side of the story we had was that of the Quarians. Legion takes the whole Geth mythos and turns it on its head. They give us a new viewpoint from which to see the Geth. We get to hear their side of the war between the Geth and the Quarians, in which they were defending themselves from genocide. This fits in with the Quarian accounts from the first and second games, as the Quarians were going to exterminate them. In Legions’ words, the Geth didn’t want to fight, but they felt they had to ensure their continued survival.
The other fascinating aspect we encounter is the reason for the Geth joining with Sovereign and Saren. After winning their freedom, they were contacted by Sovereign. Some of the Geth sided with Sovereign while some did not. The Geth believe that all sentient beings have the right to determine their own futures (so completely different from what we were led to believe about them in the first game!). By joining the Reapers, the other Geth were giving up their right to determine their own future. When posed the question of why the Geth weren’t choosing their future by choosing to side with the Reapers, Legion quotes Sovereign from the first game, when he tells Shepard that by using the mass relays and the Citadel, sentient life thus far had developed along the path that the Reapers wanted them to. Legions point was that those Geth were allowing the Reapers to choose their future for them.
We learn that only the Geth who follow the Reapers want to eradicate all organic life, as that is what the Reapers want from them. The Geth who chose not to side with the Reapers do not wish destruction on the organics. In fact, at one point in the game, Legion welcomes the idea of peace between the Quarians and the Geth. It’s interesting on how Legion’s opinions on this really skew what we think of the Geth, and then how, once aboard the Quarian Flotilla, their comments about the Geth seem immature and prejudiced.
Additionally, Legion has some fantastic opinions about society and politics. The best part of the game is bringing them in your party when you go to the Quarian Flotilla.
The newest DLC character, Kasumi, is really terrific. She’s fun to have around, as she makes some entertaining comments about things, and she is powerful!
In general, all the characters are really fascinating. Some of them are truly awesome, and some of them are a bit annoying, but that is due to the character being who they are supposed to be. I can’t really fault BioWare for having a diverse enough set of characters that some of them rubbed me the wrong way. It adds a sense of realism to the story – in a real life situation like this, you couldn’t be expected to recruit a team of entirely awesome people.
The game is structured in such a way that most of your time will be taken up with various missions for your party members. Each party member has two missions, one mission in which you find them, and the other mission that, if completed successfully, gains their loyalty. Loyalty is a very important part of the game, as it is one of the factors that determines who survives the final confrontation. This is one of the things I love about ME2 the most. Once you actually embark on your suicide mission, the survival for the characters on your party is not guaranteed. The choices that you’ve made up until that point in the game, combined with the choices you make during the suicide mission, will determine who lives and who dies. You can, with the correct choices, get your entire party to survive. Of course, the opposite is also true, as it is also possible to make your choices such that everybody, including Shepard, dies during the final scene. This is impressive.
Speaking of choices, we run into the one area where I couldn’t help but feeling disappointed with the game. Much like I mentioned in my Dragon Age Origins: Awakening review, I was a bit perturbed that BioWare took the game in such a direction that the choices you made in the first game had little to no impact on the second game. To make my point, I’ll give you an example. One of the big choices at the end of the first game was your decision to either save or destroy the Council. The second game is written such that you barely even notice what that choice was. You see the Council for a brief conversation and they are mentioned a couple of times during the course of the game, but that’s it. Their limited involvement in the story means that I never felt the impact of that choice on the second game.
With luck, the third game will bring together all the choices that were made in the previous two games, and show them to us in a way that feels like those choices mattered.
Meh.
I have one other pseudo-gripe about the game. They trimmed down many of the RPG elements from the first game, which was odd. At first, I really was against the change – and there are certain parts I still am not quite good with. They changed the level up system by limiting the number of abilities you have access to and dropping the level cap down to 30. Also, rather than earning experience for killing enemies and completing tasks, you now only earn experience at the end of missions, which saddened me a bit. One of the best parts of any RPG is leveling up, and I don’t generally support any change that decreases the number of times I can do this. One of my other favorite parts of RPGs is loot hunting – finding new and better equipment to dump on my characters. This is one of the main reasons I will still play Diablo 2 after 13 years. Borderlands is also great for this. Mass Effect 1 was likewise great for loot hunting – it was a lot of fun to level up and then try to find the level X armor, weapons, Omni-tools, and amps. This functionality was removed entirely from Mass Effect 2. Instead we get a static upgrade system that is based on where you happen to be in a galaxy rather than upon level, and since the items are in the same place every single play through, the exploration part has gone rather out the window. Enemies no longer drop items, and there is no commerce system, which are equally disappointing.
Aside from reducing the amount of RPG to be had in ME2, BioWare put a heavy emphasis on combat. This is actually a really good thing, because they went to great lengths to tighten up the combat system, making it at once faster paced and more strategic. Whereas, even in ME1, you could just run into most rooms, guns a-blazin’ even at higher difficulties, ME2 requires you to think about things and strategize. Each class feels different now – thanks mostly the smaller skill list for each character. More to the point, though, each class plays differently, and approaches combat in a different way. This is a great change for the series, I think, and goes a long way towards balancing out the fact that some of the more RPGish elements have been cut. It also adds a fair amount of replay value, just because it’s interesting to go back and play through to combat areas with each class.
Have I mentioned the soundtrack yet? Jack Wall’s score for this game is just astounding. He keeps many of the same themes from the first game while introducing a slew of new themes for the new characters. The CD presents most of the score in suites – all the music you hear on the two missions for each character are combined into a single track titled with the character’s name. It lends a distinct feel to both the missions and the characters. Mordin, Samara, and Tali all have particularly epic tracks.
Overall, ME2 is a great game. The one question I get asked most often is how it compares to ME1. I’d have to say they are on equal footing in my mind. I love ME1 for the tight story, its heavy RPG elements, and the ability to explore and find high powered items, not to mention the commerce system. ME2 is the better looking game, by far – featuring exactly zero instances of texture pop in – the combat is tight, strategic, and loads of fun; and there is a strong focus on characters. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you. ME1 set the bar for all games on the 360 particularly high, and it’s a great achievement that BioWare was able to meet that level of expectation with the first sequel.
Of course, this sets a ridiculously high bar for ME3. I can’t wait to get my hands on that game.
Score: 9.4/10.0
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