Jan

Mass Effect 2: Review

By admin

There is a difference between awesome and brilliance…If it wasn’t for the month of January 2010 I may never have known it. Earlier this month I had a chance to play what probably represents pure awesomeness in Bayanetta, a frenetic and fluid action game that lives up to its non-stop climax reputation. This week, we’ve gotten to play pure brilliance in Mass Effect 2 (ME2).

From the opening sequence, you feel the gravity and scope of this epic. You instantly feel like your decisions mean (& meant) something. Having two peoples experiences with the same game vary so much within its first minutes is an amazing accomplishment…Bioware manages this by allowing the decisions made during the first Mass Effect to become so intricately woven into the sequel that you as a player, really feel the weight of every decision you make. These decisions are rarely presented in the right/wrong, good/evil gold standard of most rpgs you have played. The situations are very grey…what do you do, save thousands of lives or secure resources to help win a major conflict…it’s not an easy choice, either of which will have a drastic impact on how your personal story will unfold.

Everything people blasted the first game about is gone or fixed…did you hate the Mako, no sweat its gone, did the elevators piss you off…well they fixed that too. Even all the odd audio farts have been patched up. Everything has been streamlined, even ammo gathering has been made less painful by using universal ammo for all weapons. One thing that always irked me during my rpg gaming marathons was having to “level” all of my side characters…Bioware fixed that by granting team experience that levels all characters at the same time. This was a great call on their part, now I have no hesitation when deciding to use a new character. Mixing and matching team members is a no fuss experience…no more wasting 3-4 hours building your level 5 merc up to level 20 so you can see what he’s all about…and really this makes the 30-40 hours of play time even more impressive since there is very little bullshit forced level grind.

After roughly 40 hours with the game I can say this. You won’t play a more engrossing & engaging experience on the Xbox 360. Bioware has managed to perfectly blend action and rpg elements to produce a masterpiece. Awesome graphics, great performances, tight writing, exciting game play, perfect pacing and one of the best “sci-fi” stories across any media make this a must buy game for anyone with a 360…unless Hanna Montana The Movie is your favorite game.

Although I looooove this game I can’t give it a 10…I have a couple minor issues. Scanning for minerals was a bore and the hacking mini games became a little too repetitive. I also hope the devs can figure out a way to lighten some of the loading times…they are much better that the first game but there is still room for improvement.

Final verdict…buy it, it was the best 40 hours I’ve spent with a video game in YEARS…immediately after I finished the game I started a second play through. You won’t want the game to end once those end credits finish.

Rating: (9.5/10)