Mass Effect 2 is the first game of the franchise to hit PS3, and it's clearly apparent from the get go that this is somewhat of a crutch. As good as Mass Effect 2 is, playing through it on PS3 a year later, and not having enjoyed it's first installment, you get the impression this game has suffered from extreme over hype. The game presents a fragmented experience of both brilliance and mediocrity that leaves you with mixed impressions. But before I divulge any more let's have a look at the core elements of the game that define Mass Effect 2.
By far the most attractive elements of Mass Effect 2 is both the story, and the universe in which it is set. Bioware have clearly given a lot of love to developing not only a believable setting, but an entire lore comparable to the likes of Lord of the Rings. The myriad of codex entries, the histories to explore and all the little bits of information available about every planet, character, race and creed in the game really serve you well in immersing yourself in the game. It's also somewhat of a must for PS3 players to have this information readily available as there are many references to the first game that you find yourself needing to fill in blanks. The interactive comic option does serve to give you a little background, but it was too brief and light on detail for me and I found myself reading the detailed plot of the first game on Wikipedia to get a better understanding of the references in Mass Effect 2. It's not just codex information available however, it's also side quests and characters you meet on your journey that serve to expand the scope of your setting enough to satisfy even the most curious gamers.
The story line is even more compelling than the setting. Anybody who enjoys grand-scale sci-fi or fantasy tales will love the story of Mass Effect 2. It's refreshing to have a game with a story told so well and with so many outcomes available, where with many games this console generation the story is a mere afterthought. This game, though boring in parts (more due to gameplay contraints) will drive you to the finish on the pure force of its story alone, which is saying something.
Characters are fleshed out, and you can learn much about them by just talking to them. You'll find yourself wanting to engage them to learn more about them- and by doing so you'll embark on side missions that earn you valuable experience satisfy your exploration hunger.
As good as the story and setting of Mass Effect 2 are however, it's really let down by it's core gameplay- which is at best a stiff and buggy cover based 3rd person shooter. It's hard to know where to begin with my criticism of this element of the game. Nothing about it feels right. Level design is poor and predictable. Basically every time you see an abundance of waist height cover, you know you're in for a fight. Enemy AI is also downright terrible and always follows the same predictable paths- just walking towards you shooting (or simply standing still). The difficulty of the enemies is based more on the bullets they can take or the shields they have. One saving grace in combat is the ability of you to command your team's abilities and use each of two individuals biotic or other powers in battle to give you a one up on heavily shielded enemies. However, all too frequently combat devolves into sticking to cover, popping up to make a few shots, waiting for your shields to regenerate, and repeating. Your enemies will simply stand still shooting providing not much by a way of challenge, and the game will just resort to overwhelming you with sheer numbers for harder levels. Animations are stiff and unattractive (not a novel trait for an RPG), and the cover system itself is awkward. Often your character will stick to invisible walls or lunge to cover where you didn't want him/her to.
What makes this all the more painful is that the majority of your gameplay will be absorbed by these unsatisfying combat missions. I frequently found myself reduced to absolute boredom in these missions, and found them struggling to complete. I only ground on to see what would happen next in regards to the story. Sometimes it was admittedly fun- but for every fun part of the combat there is something dull to test your attention span.
Outside of this part of the gameplay there is thankfully plenty of other things to do. Exploring planets and places in the universe and learn about the intrigues of NPC is definitely more fun than it sounds. However often these resort to being sent on another boring combat mission. There's also armour, weapon and ship upgrades to be made through acquiring mineral resources from mining planets and finding various merchants in places scattered throughout the galaxy. There's also interesting aspects to the relationships you build with your crew such as loyalty which you gain by helping crew with side-quests. This will unlock new abilities for them to use in combat among other things like being able to develop sexual relationships. The game handles these interpersonal relationships through an intuitive dialogue system similar to other RPG games, but more refined in the dialogue choices you make and and conversation structure.
Graphically speaking, the game is a really mixed bag in the presentation stakes. Characters look decent enough, and there are some impressive areas graphically in the game. But animations are stiff and poor, and the game is littered with low polygon and low res texture environments. There's also the occasional graphical hitch and in one vehicle sequence I honestly thought I was playing a PSone game due to what could only have been a graphics glitch.
Sound also doesn't really stand out- and is particularly patchy in cut scenes where effects appear to be missing and/or totally out of sync. This is forgivable and serviceable enough, but happens all too often for this not to have been patched by now.
To conclude though, whether or not you should play Mass Effect 2 depends on your patience and how important story and immersion are to you. Indeed, I did think this was a good game and was satisfied by the end. The story was the real driving factor behind the game, and was good enough and deep enough for me to push through the games more bland elements. However, the game's stiff, repetitive combat is a real let down and all the more so because it is such a large part of the game. For those of you who love a good space based yarn full of intrigue and interesting characters, I wholeheartedly recommend Mass Effect 2 to you. However, for anyone else it's a tough game to endorse because it can really test your patience.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
Wealth of Geeks explores some of the best gaming romances that have stolen our hearts over the years.
Diandra worked on Diablo 4 and also other games at Blizzard including WoW: Dragon Flight. She’s also been at Bioware, Carbine, RIOT, and she is currently working at Crystal Dynamics.
Brian was the Lead Writer on Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls, worked on StarCraft: Heart of the Swarm, StarCraft: Wings of Liberty, and was also a writer on Mass Effect 2. He’s also been involved in movies such as the Iron Giant.
Diandra and Brian discuss their industry experience, the games they have worked on, how the writing process works, and much more.
Nice review. I think most people that have played ME and ME2 think ME2's combat system is much improved over that of ME. I'm probably in the minority in preferring ME's combat system mainly because I felt it gave you a better overview of your surroundings and what you need to do, whearas in ME2 it was quite narrow and more suited to a shooter. But ME had a number of problems too, such as enemies walking right in front of you and just randomly walking around in circles, leaving you walking around in circles trying to shoot them (and missing horribly many times) and then trying to melee them (which is really awkward since there is no button to do it, Shepard will just do it when you press the shoot button when an enemy is close enough).
Agree about cover system too, it wasn't great in ME and isn't really any better in ME2 either, having the same button that puts you into cover making you jump out and over that cover right into fire is more than frustrating at times. I agree about the settings in ME2 too. While they were all "different" they wasn't really that much variation, they just looked different. I hope that interplanetory exploration comes back in ME3, but if the whole story is based on the Reaper's attack on Earth then who knows, maybe we'll just be exploring lots and lots of different areas on Earth (although I don't think people will like the game being restricted to that).
Completely agree with this the other criticism i have is how your choices don't really matter or change anything. Also i don't like the fact that everything is a linear corridor even the hub worlds.
There are indeed some fair criticisms for this highly praised game/series, however I can't help but feel part of your experience was only hampered by yourself:
"Bad shooting mechanics (which make up most of the gameplay)"
Well, besides my personal disagreement with the "bad shooting" mechanics part, I was getting the impression early from your review that you chose to be a soldier, and lo and behold "which make up the..." definitely points to that assumption being true.
See you CHOSE to make most the gameplay about shooting, because well, lots of gamers primarily play shooters, so I don't blame you. But, there is a lot more depth than just blasting your assault rifle at anything that moves here, if you play one of the spell casters, for instance, a whole range of new gameplay will open up to you. Additionally, if you also went the "quick start" option completely, you probably played the game on Normal, which is FAR too easy for the amount of advantages this game gives you.
But of course, spellcasters and/or increased difficulty(veteran=normal, hardcore=hard, insanity=FUuuuUUUUU KROGANS!!!) may not be your cup of tea, and if so, that would mean that you came at this game expecting more of a standard 3rd Person Shooter experience. Well of course, then, you'll have a sour after-taste in your mouth left over.
I just got this for PS3 i played a few hrs of it on 360. But enough to just get a taste of what is to come. From reviews i have seen the same thing amazing story and characters but animations and some bugs. Which is no big deal i guess Bioware put out a update not to long ago addressing a lot of these problems.
Thank you for the review found it helpful i cannot wait to receive this in the mail!