ColdCaveGames

Mass Effect 2 is great more as an experience than as a game. In a sense it is an RPG, in that you will be able to shape the way the story goes, and ultimately, which of your crewmates will survive the impossible mission set forth to you. It plays as a 3rd person cover-based shooter. You will play through the game with a squad of 3, and the game consists almost entirely running back and forth to trigger dialogues and progressing through dungeons using limited tactical choices. When you are not doing this, you will be doing extremely tiresome probing mini-games which are necessary to beef up your squad, or you will be doing hacking mini-games similar to those found in Bioshock (aka dull and repetitive).

Fortunately, the game succeeds in its storytelling, moreso than any other Bioware game in my opinion. This is for me was enough to give it a stellar rating. This game lasts around 30 hours, and the majority of those hours is spent getting to know your crew, and doing each of their personal missions. Since characters are the driving force behind this game, I’ll give my opinions on a few of them. If you don’t want any spoilers, I’d recommend to stop reading here. There is near unanimous agreement that bioware makes great games, which I think is reason alone to play this.

Characters- pros and cons

Garrus: I felt they could have added more personality to this character. He did not seem to convey much emotion in ME2, which is disappointing considering he was carried over from the first game. Feels like a stock character and an afterthought.

Mordin: This is one of my favorite characters. His character is great and his distinct opinions and thoughts transcend him above a common rpg archtype. I hope to see more from him in ME3

Jake: She felt like a stock character as well, but I chose to push Miranda as love interest and not Jack, so she may be more interesting in a second playthrough

Zaheed: The worst character imo, but would be a good companion during a renegade playthrough. My main qualm is he lacked depth as compared to other characters.

Thane: A drell assassin, he is another of my favorites and a new race introduced in ME2. His race and personality were very interesting. It’s too bad I doubt we’ll see him in the 3rd installment.

Miranda: She is a human genetically engineered to be ‘perfect’. I can tell the dev team didn’t waste any time modelling her @ss haha, she’s great to look at for a video game character. Probably the most detail put into one in a game thus far.

Jacob: Your first party member. He is the archtype badass soldier with almost no personality. Maybe he’d be more interesting when playing as female Shepard?

There are a few other characters who are all satisfying, but neither favorites or least favorites.

edit: afterthought: A big con for me were the crashes. Nothing sucks more than having a boss fight go very well only to crash to desktop just before victory. Happened a couple too many times to dismiss. Prepare to rage, at least once ;P

(9/10)

Review by TrueSounds