Review: Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)

One month after the devastating geth attack on the Citadel, the galactic community struggles to rebuild.

The Alliance fleet made a tremendous sacrifice to save the Citadel Council and earned humanity membership in this prestigious group. Now the Council is forced to respond to evidence that the Reapers -- enormous machines that eradicate all organic civilization every 50,000 years have returned. To quell the rumors, the Council has sent Commander Shepard and the Normandy to wipe out the last pockets of geth resistance. Officially, they blame the invasion on the geth and their leader, a rogue Spectre.

But for those who know the truth, the search for answers is just beginning.



Mass Effect 2. The sequel to the original ground-breaking game from BioWare. But does it improve upon its predecessor in every way possible? Yes and no. Well…mostly yes.

In terms of story, no it does not. The story in ME2 is mainly just filler between the original Mass Effect and ME3. Immediately after the events of Mass Effect, a mysterious space vessel ambushes the SSV Normandy. While the majority of the crew makes it out alive in escape pods, Commander Shepard does not. He/she risks their life to save the Normandy’s pilot, Jeff “Joker” Moreau. Shepard is sent hurling into the emptiness of space amongst the remains of the Normandy, desperately gasping for air as his/her suit loses oxygen. Shepard’s body is recovered and brought back to life two years later by Cerberus, a pro-human terrorist organization led by the Illusive Man. Shepard discovers that the attack on the Normandy was the work of the Collectors, a mysterious insect-like race working for the Reapers. The Collectors are abducting human colonies throughout the galaxy and the Illusive Man presents Shepard with the task of assembling a motley crew of squad mates and putting an end to the Collector threat. Everyone agrees that this is no doubt a suicide mission but Shepard is confident that they will beat the odds. So not a complex story really. You just go around assembling your team and gaining their loyalty all in the hopes of surviving the suicide mission. While the story is nothing special, the storytelling itself is still top-notch with superb writing, cinematics, and voice work. This is most evident with your crew. Each character has their own conflicts (i.e. father issues, dealing with mistakes made in the past, discovering their purpose in life, dealing with the desire for revenge, etc). You learn about their history and motivations, and persuade them to believe that they are worth sacrificing themselves for the greater good. Each character is captivating, flawed, and some of the most intriguing in video game history. And the Illusive Man is voiced by and modelled after Martin Sheen. Cool.



If you played Mass Effect 1, you can import your character and all the decisions you made into Mass Effect 2, appropriately changing certain story elements. Building upon these decisions in ME2 strengthens the idea that this is your Shepard. The things that you do and the things that you say really do impact the way other characters interact with you and have major consequences. If you didn’t play ME1 you should still play ME2, it just won’t have the same impact.

The technical issues from ME1 are essentially gone, making the game an enjoyable experience right from the very beginning to the very end. No texture loading, no glitchy moments, just exhilarating gameplay through and through (the game did crash though, my Xbox got the three red rings twice but I’m more convinced that that has to do with my power supply and not the game itself).

The environments are gorgeous, even during the side missions where, in ME1, you would travel from planet to planet where the only difference was the color of the planet. In ME2, each side mission occurs in a unique, detailed setting. However, the side missions themselves are often short and boring (one side mission for example, has you land on a space station and press three switches. It looks incredible but all you did was press three switches).



The game itself is definitely more action oriented than ME1 and less RPG-like. You have fewer skills, no ammo, armor, or weapon powers, and there’s a lot more duck-and-cover shooting. Each class still has its own unique skills and powers and the difference between them really shows during gameplay but it definitely has been downplayed since the original Mass Effect. However, having so many squad mates adds a deep level of strategy as you try to create a balanced team during missions. If you’re an adept, then bring along members that are tech oriented and have brute physical strength, and vice versa. Having a plethora of squad mates to choose from makes this element very fun and it honestly is a shame that you really can’t spend equal time with each member. They are all so interesting both in terms of gameplay and personality. When I began this playthrough of ME2 I knew which characters were going to die in ME3 so I initially set out to kill those squad mates during the suicide mission and see how certain events would mesh out in the sequel. I mean why not? They're going to die anyway might as well kill them now. But by the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I genuinely cared about these fascinating characters and would not let them die under my command. Kudos to BioWare for creating characters that you will truly care about.



Mass Effect 2 is an absolute gem that demands to be played repeatedly, each time providing a different experience. Every aspect of this game is incredible. The writing, the graphics, the voice work, the musical score, the gameplay. All stellar. It isn’t perfection but it is damn close.

Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 9.5

Overall: 9.8

 

Well, I mentioned voice work a little in the part where I said the storytelling is better than the story but you're right, I didn't mention the soundtrack till the end and even then all I said was that is was good. Thank you for the constructive criticism.