Mass Effect 2 for the PC and Xbox360 is a beautifully crafted space opera, continuing on the story and choices of the first to bring a game that tells less of an epic story but concentrates more on the characters and the massively improved gameplay to bring a fulfilling game full of jaw dropping moments and brilliant gameplay.

Mass Effect 2 continues the outer space drama of humanities plight against, well depending on your choices from the first, it could be a great and many things, such as the citadel council or most likely this games massive threat; the Collectors.
The game opens with a surprise attack on the Normandy which soon leads to a massive technical feat of highly detailed characters and environments, or lack thereof i.e. SPACE. The game within the short ten minutes will have your jaw on the floor with numerous huge vistas, twists and of course the beautiful space scenes.

To be honest I was expecting a massive story that was just as epic as the story of the first, although now looking back I don’t really think anything can be more epic than that of the first, where you need to save the citadel and in the end the entire universe. This one feels like a build up for the obvious third game, it’s a shame that this one is so simple storyline wise but the characters are much deeper and well defined, as is the gameplay. Among a few of the changes, Bioware oddly changed the controls, on the PC Version, so that the running button will also make you stick to cover, which obviously can present some trouble traversing the environment.

Speaking of which I came across several problems with the environment, which was a glitch I noticed that although not game breaking caused such a problem I had to restart from a previous save. The glitch is odd and from what I can tell is caused by the player running to corners of a fixed object. The fixed object being an object, that’s meant to stay in place and not be moved such as a desk or obviously a pillar holding up the ceiling.

 

The glitch will cause Shepard to be float up in the world but unable to move from the spot on the corner, sometimes I got lucky and was able to moveoff but other times it would just keep me there and I saw no way but to restart from my save. This could be down to a modelling error where the sides of an object aren’t connected correctly, but I believe it’s far too common for that, or possibly a bug in the code from some of the gameplay refinements of the cover system. The cover system now allows you to jump over cover, and if cover is to large to jump over, allows you to jump on top of it which is about the right height of where the glitch floats you. If it is simply a bug it could be fixed easily within the next couple of days with a patch.

Saying that I never stopped playing the game until I had it completed, and with this being an RPG it took me a good 30 hours of gameplay, but I did hardly any side quests or scan many planets, so it could easily be another five to ten hours doing more side quests and scanning planets. 

A feature that is a massive sale for me is the whole your choices carry over from the previous title, many games have tried this before but never had a sequel that continues what you did in the previous game. And with this being a sequel, your choices do truly carry on which you can see throughout the second game. However never fear if you haven’t played the first as the game will choose a random beginning and choices for you but when some people come up to you and say thanks for something you were meant to of done before, it gets a little confusing.

 

But to truly experience the game I recommend buying and completing the first game to see for yourself, that your choices do come to live. If you do carry over your save, and character, then you might experience a few nice or interesting comments from people you spared/saved previously; which is a nice touch allowing you to see some sort of consequence because of your choices which not only affected the previous title in some way but may of changed the entire world, or universe if you will, of Mass Effect 2 if you killed or spared certain people.

Like I said previously the title took me 30 hours to complete, which I basically played none stop, if only stopping to get a few hours sleep, because I was gripped by the characters. Now I say this because there isn’t really much of a story going on here, unlike the first, but it’s the characters that keep you moving forward. There own stories of revenge, beliefs, childhood, or even catching up with some old faces to discover they’ve changed quite a bit, or again discovering an old enemy isn’t quite your enemy (you’ll have to play through to see what I mean).

In closing, if you enjoyed the first, you’ll love Mass Effect 2, everything has been improved from the visuals, gameplay and even the Unreal Engine used to bump out some technical marvels. If you haven’t played the previous one, it’s still worthy of your time but you might feel slightly disconnected from the world/characters, and therefore I strongly recommend you go out and buy the first to craft your own adventure through this epic space opera.

8.8/10

By Darren Arquette Posted Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 1:07 pm