Review: Mass Effect 2

There was much love from fans and critics for Mass Effect 1. We praised the story, the depth and variety of the player experience, the introduction of the dialogue wheel, and the successful attempt to weld RPG elements and first person shooter together. However, sprinkled amongst the acclaim were so many “buts”, making reviews and posts look like ashtrays. Ask anyone who played Mass Effect and he or she will come up with a long list of complaints: long loading screens (and the interminable elevator rides), texture popping, poor framerate, driving around on barren planets, the frustrating inventory system.

But BioWare listened to our kvetching and have released one the best games I’ve played in a long time. So load up your shotguns, choose your companions, it’s time for a look at Mass Effect 2.

The Story
If you’ve seen the game trailers, you know that Commander Shepard has died and, after two years pass, he comes back into the universe. How and why that happens, I’ll leave to you to find out. Before Shepard can catch up on all his email and the episodes of Space Idol, he’s asked to save humanity again. Someone or something is kidnapping entire human colonies and the Council is ignoring the threat, content to believe wiping out the geth will solve everything. But before you can jump in your ship and solve the mystery, you have to collect your team.

I found the main story slow to build as I spent a lot of time flying around and cajoling people to join my team. I think the lack of a grand moving plot is attributable to ME2’s position in the trilogy. Typically the middle installment in a trilogy is setting the stage for the last part. Also a minor flaw is the ending–don’t worry it’s not Fallout 3 bad. It’s definitely a head scratcher and will lead to many a discussion over beers once my buddies have finished the game. But it doesn’t ruin the game and it makes sense given what’s happened in the game–however it’s goofy and should be noted.

I can forgive this because there are some major revelations that reward those who played ME1. As well, you deepen your understanding about the different alien cultures. In my playthrough, I learned about the krogans’ Rite of Passage and Migrant Fleet of the quarians. ME2 continues the world building from the previous game and it is certainly welcome. And the last shot of the game gave me goosebumps.

The Gameplay

As I said above and in my previous hands-on, BioWare did a major overhaul of the gameplay. It was an absolute joy to clear out  room after room of bad guys and, because the auto save points are so generous, you don’t have to stop every five minutes to save. It keeps the momentum going and the fun factor high.

Let’s start with the combat. In ME1, the combat seemed incomplete. All the guns were overpowered, especially the uber-Spectre shotgun. Enemies could be a good distance away, but your (supposedly short-range) shotgun was able to take them out. Now, each weapon has a “thermal clip” (aka ammo) and you have a limited number of shots for each thermal clip that is picked up in game. Once the thermal clip has overheated,  you can no longer fire any more shots and you eject it and put another one in.

A quarian, human, and a drell walk into a bar.

This change puts the player in an interesting position. You’ll probably fall in love with one gun and really rely on it. But what happens when your thermal clips run out? I really enjoyed using the sniper rifle. It was powerful but, once it was fully upgraded, I could only take one shot per thermal clip and I could only carry 12 thermal clips for it. So after 12 shots, I was forced to use another, less powerful gun. It forces some planning on how you want to use your weapons. (As an aside about sniper rifles: when you pull of an especially sweet headshot, your teammates call out “Nice shot!” Aww, warm fuzzies.)

Coupled with the improved combat is a cover system that is easy to use and actually works–probably because it’s as if it were on loan from Gears of War. Tap A to huddle up to a wall or behind a crate, and then press B to leave cover. You can also vault over crates when in cover by pressing A and pushing the left stick forward. So no more throwing yourself up against a wall and hoping you stick.

Even though the combat is straightened out, I still found I had problems with the final boss battle. It was not clear how I was supposed to defeat it, but once I figured it out, the battle seemed almost too easy. This was disappointing since every battle before then had been a joy to play.

The biotics and powers are slightly tweaked. The old favourites are there like singularity, throw, and warp, but there are some new powers like pull and shockwave, which sends out a wave of biotic power. BioWare also introduced a new levelling system for your powers. Level 1 takes one skill point, level 2 requires 2 skill points, etc. Once you reach level 4, you choose to make your power have an area effect or just inflict more damage. Also, once you’ve used a power, all other biotics and abilities are unavailable briefly. Again it adds another planning element to combat. Do I chuck everything I have at this one bad guy and hope no other baddies show up, or do I parcel out a throw now and an AI hack later?

Now that he's in the air, blast him with everything you've got.

And here’s a HUGE improvement that you’re sure to notice: while there is a bit of wait at the beginning of a level to load everything, there are absolutely no loading screens until you leave that level. You can run around huge levels, like the asari business centre on Illium, which is composed of two major areas, and there are no loading screens.

The galaxy map has also had some work done. No longer do you accidentally exit by pressing B, and the map helpfully flags where your missions are. Be warned though: at the beginning of the game when you’re queuing up all your missions, the galaxy map will have approximately a million flags. While BioWare junked the missions on random planets, you will still scan planets for four resources so you can upgrade weapons and your ship. To do this, you move a reticule around a planet and when you encounter a rich vein of platinum (for example), the controller starts to vibrate and the seismic graph goes crazy. You can ignore the ship and weapons upgrades that require this process but ignoring this makes the last level pretty tough.

Oh man, not space zombies again. Where's my cricket bat?

A new feature is that you fly the Normandy between systems in a cluster. It’s cool in theory, but isn’t that why you have Joker the pilot aboard? Dammit Jim! I’m a Spectre, not a pilot. So if you run out of fuel, the ship consumes your precious mineral resources to take you back to a system with a fuel depot. Um, doesn’t Shepard have membership in space AAA? Well, maybe he/she should.

The inventory system has received an overhaul. The game automatically chooses the best weapon for your team and you no longer have to play dress up with your teammates’ outfits. Shepard’s armor can be customized with pieces you find and bu– it’s simple and I like that. Some hardcore RPG enthusiasts might be miffed that we aren’t spending time in the inventory screen, but Mass Effect is about having an sci-fi action-adventure experience, not managing your loot.

The dialogue wheel is still here and is exactly the same. You will notice more “colourful metaphors” that don’t feel out of place in this world, but you will notice when a character drops an f-bomb since we haven’t heard that before. The only dialogue selection improvement is the  interrupts in a dialogue scene. In the dialogue cut-scenes, a flashing Paragon or Renegade symbol will appear in the lower left or right hand corner, respectively. Depending on which path you’re following, you can pull the the appropriate trigger and see what happens. In my playthrough as a Renegade, I cracked a turian’s head open with an electric wench so I could sabotage the robots, and later I punched a journalist in the face. Good times. Obviously, the Renegade interrupts are more fun, but, then again, being a Renegade has always been more fun.

The Graphics

I don’t know how BioWare made everything look so amazing. The game’s graphics are a leap forward from ME1. Each area has a distinct look and feel, even adding environment effects like rain that would have caused ME1 to choke. Banished are the cookie cutter warehouses. The nightclub Afterlife has a gritty Blade Runner feel thanks to its deep oranges and browns. The asari business centre on Illium is draped in Apple whites and soothing blues. Besides a lush looking environment, each area is populated with many tableaux to eavesdrop on. One of my favourites was a used game vendor that parroted all the lines from your “favourite” used game store. Nice way to get your jabs in, BioWare.

Pretty, eh? This game looks phenomenal, lens flares included.

The biggest graphic annoyance in ME1 for me was the texture pop-ins, but the sequel has removed 99% of this. This is most apparent when you meet Subject Zero. She’s a gal that’s taken tattooing to the extreme and, had she been in the previous game, she would have spent the game half naked because we’d be waiting for the tattoo textures to pop in.

One quibble is that most characters you encounter from the first game don’t look as good as the new characters. Based on your decisions in ME1, some familiar faces pop up and when they’re in a scene with Miranda or Thane, a cool looking lizard assassin, you can see how homely the ME1 dudes look. There’s something about the eyes in the ME1 characters that’s a little off and it’s only accentuated when you compare them to the new characters.

The framerate is solid too. In ME1 we saw stutters even when it was just one enemy and three teammates. Now there can be a few enemies on screen, your teammates going crazy with their powers, and you going wild with guns a blazing–doesn’t faze the game at all. It’s as smooth as the time you decided to have the cafeteria chili.

The tattoos are there all the time. Sorry guys, they fixed the texture popping.

The Bottom Line

When (not if) you buy this game, warn your friends, family, and workplace (if you’d like to continue working there) that you’ve purchased Mass Effect 2. You will get so involved with the game they might think that you’ve disappeared, or, perhaps, been eaten by a bear.

When we met with Associate Producer Jesse Houston at CES, he told us he was on his fourth playthrough–I thought he was crazy.  After finishing the game, I can say with great conviction he is not crazy. I cannot wait to sit down again and explore every nook and cranny in this game. The improvement of the graphics and the smooth gameplay make the Mass Effect universe a living, breathing organism. Combined with tight combat, I feel like I’m part of a greater galactic story.

BioWare’s project team should be extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished here. They are going to please fans of the first and hopefully introduce new fans to this exciting universe.

The Good
Major improvements made to every single element in the game
Saves are generous and happen quickly
Dialogue interrupts are fun and make the game more dynamic

The Bad
Why do I have to fly my ship between the different systems? Isn’t that why I hired Joker?
Characters, including yours, from the first game don’t look as good compared to the characters in ME2
Story is slow to build

Statistics
Played on an Xbox 360 for 22 hours. Completed the game and reached level 23. Played as a female Infiltrator.