The Short and Sweet
The second chapter in BioWare's sci-fi epic is one that no 360 gamer should miss out on. Though I'll mention it a few times as comparison, I'm grading this installment by itself and not against the first game. It scores better that way.
Overall - 9
On its own, Mass Effect 2 is a superb action game. It is primarily an Over The Shoulder shooter with RPG elements, and amazing graphics, story and acting. When compared to the first Mass Effect though, it is considerably dumbed down in the RPG department.
Graphics - 9
It's only for a few minor glitches and issues that this game doesn't deserve a perfect 10. Characters, environments and effects all look absolutely amazing, and there's little noticeable difference between cinematics and gameplay. There were a handful of instances though, especially on the citadel, where weird graphical bugs were present.
Audio - 9
Again, if not for some issues with character dialog randomly cutting out this would be a perfect 10. The score and sound effects are great, and add to each and every environment.
Controls - 8
For the most part BioWare has done a great job with improving the controls. You're now able to use your squad's abilities and your own much quicker thanks to assigning specific ones to buttons on the controller. What hurt the score for the controls for me was the cover system.
Cover and sprint are both mapped to the A button. Most of the time it's not an issue, but there were far too many times that I died in battle because of this. I would try to sprint away to a different position, only to find myself snapping to cover on a nearby object, and quickly being obliterated in the confusion. Mapping sprint to pressing the left joystick, as has become the common place for it in many games since Call of Duty 4, would have left me with no complaints for the controls.
Story - 9
Mass Effect 2's story is pretty much a direct continuation of the first game's story, and as such I strongly recommend anyone with interest in Mass Effect 2 to play the first game. Without doing that you're going to miss out on an understanding of what had lead the main character to this point, as well as the seriousness of the threat at hand. What keeps this chapter from scoring a perfect 10 is the process of gathering your team.
With the way BioWare has constructed it, you must assemble a team that can total at 12 individuals, before you can finish the main story. The process of recruiting each team member is a bit lengthy and can consist of several missions until all is said and done. The problem is that throughout the course of recruiting these individuals, you are forced into missions that advance the main story. This kind of feels like watching two movies on tv at the same time. You watch one until there is a commercial break, and then switch to the other until that one has a break. You just keep switching back and forth until they've finished.
In the end it all felt just a little rushed, and as a result you just don't feel the weight of what's going on, and the main enemies don't seem that dangerous because you've only fought them in a handful of missions. The battle just doesn't feel as personal as it did in the first game due to your limited interaction with the main story.
To be fair it's all very well handled and constructed, but it's just not perfect.
Gameplay - 9
Mass Effect 2 is a solid, action packed, story driven experience 85% of the time. The other 15% of the time it is a tedious, mind-numbing and time consuming experience thanks to the necessity of planet probing.
In order to upgrade the weapons, armor, and equipment of you, your team and your ship, you must gather elements from planets. True, you'll find small amounts in a box during a mission on a rare occasion, but the rest of the time you will be scanning and probing planets for these things. This process is the worst part of this game. The sad part is that a number of upgrades are essential to completing the main story successfully, so the planet probing is completely unavoidable.
Level Design - 10
Every environment is rich with character and detail. It's hard to find any fault with it.
Replayability - 9
With the multitude of different experiences to be had through the use of different squad members, abilities and decisions, it'd be hard not to play through the game multiple times. If it weren't for the awful planet probing experience, and the fact that a decent playthrough will take you around 30 hrs, I'd probably start a new one tomorrow.
I dont think I'll be playing this, at least not for now. ME1 dissapointed me in the end, and left me without the desire for more. I mean, ME1 was perfect until one of the final missions were you reach the protean city, and one of their holograms explains the missing parts of the story. Then the final boss, that was ok. But the ending! Why? Why it had to be so predictable, so "yeah I kill them all and I'm the best, now all the other aliens can kiss my human ass"..? I never wanted it to end as a 80's action movie ¬¬. As if like Shepard is innevitably changing into some kind of Rambo. No thanks.
And for what I have seen, ME2 hasn't changed this.
Anyway, good review =)
I dont think I'll be playing this, at least not for now. ME1 dissapointed me in the end, and left me without the desire for more. I mean, ME1 was perfect until one of the final missions were you reach the protean city, and one of their holograms explains the missing parts of the story. Then the final boss, that was ok. But the ending! Why? Why it had to be so predictable, so "yeah I kill them all and I'm the best, now all the other aliens can kiss my human ass"..? I never wanted it to end as a 80's action movie ¬¬. As if like Shepard is innevitably changing into some kind of Rambo. No thanks.
And for what I have seen, ME2 hasn't changed this.
Anyway, good review =)
P.S.
And once again, great avatar xD
Actually it has changed, Shepard isn't really some bad ass who everyone kisses up to. I don't want to spoil the game though, while Shepard may be a hero to the human race and other alien species he's lost a lot of things since the first game.
Actually it has changed, Shepard isn't really some bad ass who everyone kisses up to. I don't want to spoil the game though, while Shepard may be a hero to the human race and other alien species he's lost a lot of things since the first game.
Mmm... this seems interesting... Maybe I'll give it a chance after all. But it will have to wait, as I have just started Fallout 3 GOTY, and won't play any other thing until I finish it hehe.
