Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360) Review
Mass Effect 2 begins with a bang and a twist. I won’t say more than that to avoid spoiling the experience for the four people who haven’t read it somewhere else. The opening cutscene is nearly ten minutes long, and I don’t think I breathed for the entire thing. If BioWare’s mission statement was to ramp up the intensity of the Mass Effect experience then, well, they succeeded.
Mass Effect 2 sees Commander Shepard employed by ethically questionable paramilitary organisation Cerberus (yep, the same Cerberus you were encouraged to thwart as much as possible in the first game). The contract of employment? Build a team and go on a suicide mission to stop the Collectors: a race of aliens possibly working with the Reapers, probably abducting entire human colonies and definitely very, very scabby. Oh yeah, and the Reapers are an ancient race of sentient machines who exterminate all life in the galaxy every few thousand years, so no pressure. You are reminded frequently that this is a suicide mission, and if you’re not careful, it literally is. If you jump through that mysterious relay to the Collector base without proper preparation, members of your team will die. If you do a really bad job of it, you’ll die, too. Not as in “Game Over” die, and “Would you like to try again?” but actually dead. This kind of repercussion has, to my knowledge, never been seen in a game before.
Consequence is probably the biggest theme in Mass Effect 2, as it was in the first. BioWare have done a fantastic job, as with their excellent Dragon Age: Origins a few months ago, at giving players genuine choice with a real sense of consequence. This goes beyond a couple of different endings: you have fully formed, dynamic relationships, which can fall apart if you really upset someone. You literally have entire species’ survival in your hands, and while this doesn’t directly affect this game, it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to see how it’ll affect the next. This is probably one of Mass Effect 2’s crowning achievements; importing your character’s choices from the first game. Those expecting enormous, game-changing differences will be disappointed, but there are enough little tweaks to make the galaxy truly the players own. Neat little touches like bumping into old crewmates, or having someone you rescued in a quest run up to you to say hello really bring the galaxy to life, and provide a sense of overall cohesion. And it most certainly encourages multiple playthroughs.
While the story is, admittedly, a little thin, what really counts here is your team. Each member is truly individual, with their own back stories and problems. It really feels like they’ve lived lives before they met you, and the dual quests to recruit them and gain their loyalty are what make up the bulk of the game; luckily the quality is very high. Since you don’t see much of your arch-nemeses the Collectors in the game, there are several Galactic Gangs to sink your teeth into instead. These are interesting, and flesh out the galaxy a little more, but do start to feel shoehorned in after a little while, since pretty much every mission involves some running and gunning against Eclipse Mercs. Not that there’s no variety, there’s a neat espionage mission on the Citadel which I won’t spoil, as well as a few more “talky” quests. Back to the characters, there’s plenty of trust to be earned, and plenty to talk about with them, and of course the obligatory romance options which adds an extra layer of depth and immersion.
In terms of gameplay, Mass Effect 2 has been streamlined in just the right way: improving everything without changing so much it’s unrecognisable. The cover and shooting has been much improved, making this feel much more like a polished shooter, whilst also making the original feel a little clunky by comparison. Powers can now be mapped to various buttons, meaning combat is less fractured (although the power wheels are still in place). The biggest change is in the RPG elements of the game. You will have access to fewer abilities, and things like weapon and armour skills are not upgradeable. This may irritate some of the more veteran RPG players, but it makes more sense that your character, who is career military, can actually shoot straight from the beginning.
In addition, rather than picking up dozens of different versions of the same weapon, you will instead research improvements for the ones you have, as well as armour, power and ship upgrades. These are done by visiting unexplored worlds, scanning them for minerals, and deploying probes to collect the resources. It’s a much more elegant system than landing on the planet and driving around to find mineral deposits which don’t actually get you anything, as in the first game. In fact, side missions in general are much improved from before: you may get anomalous readings when scanning a planet for resources, or find hints during other missions, but you generally end up landing on a planet, or boarding a ship or station, and engaging in some kind of narrative. There’s a reasonable variety to the missions, and visually they’re more interesting than before. There’s perhaps fewer than I would have liked, and some of them could have been a little longer, but given the quality of the core quests there’s really little to complain about.
The conversation wheel remains the same, but with one very neat addition. During conversations, trigger options may flash up on screen, specifically either Paragon or Renegade options. These will interrupt the conversation and perform an appropriate (or inappropriate) action. As an example, as a Paragon you can push people out of the way of incoming bullets. Much more interesting, really, are the Renegade options, my favourite of which involved a bad guy waffling about how he and his gang were going to take of the galaxy. My response? Interrupting him with a swift shot to the gas pipe he was standing on, setting him on fire and killing him. Speaking of the Paragon / Renegade system, it still feels a little underdeveloped. For example, whichever way you swing, things will play out in pretty much the same way, which isn’t too big a deal, except no matter how much of a douche you are to everyone around you, you still get your team. This compared to Dragon Age, where if you annoy one of your party members enough, they’re likely to just leave. It feels like a bit of an oversight in a game which places so much emphasis on choice, then remains consequence free on the biggest choice of all.
Graphically, Mass Effect 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of the original. Texture pop-in is almost completely non-existent, frame-rate remains high for everything but the most intense sequences, and cutscenes are frequently pre-rendered yet seamlessly integrated for maximum immersion. And some of the cutscenes are truly spectacular. Textures are still not perfect however, though they’re far from awful. You’ll only notice occasionally, especially when conversations get extra cinematic with extreme close-ups, but it doesn’t spoil the experience. Animations feel much smoother this time round as well, and the “conversation camera” has some more interesting angles than before. Sound effects are top quality as you’d expect, although I was a little disappointed with the music. There was nothing bad about it, but it just didn’t have the presence it did in the first game. The wonderful soundtrack went a long way in defining Mass Effect for me, though Mass Effect 2 is so intense it really doesn’t suffer from the lack of music. Voice-acting in the game is, arguably, the best you’ll ever see. A fantastic list of talent added their voices to the game, and the quality shines through.
Overall, Mass Effect 2 is essential gaming. Equal parts intense shooter and character-driven RPG, there really isn’t anything quite like it. There are certainly a few missed opportunities, but BioWare have improved on every element of the fantastic original, providing a real sense of a living, breathing galaxy just like the best Sci-Fi has to offer. But what Blade Runner or Star Wars cannot offer is a real sense of choice and consequence, meaning that you, the player, will have a unique experience. Mass Effect 2 isn’t perfect, but you won’t find a more personally involving single player experience anywhere.
[starreview tpl=16]
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