REVIEW: Mass Effect 2

After thoroughly enjoying Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, I had to move on to Mass Effect 2. The first Mass Effect was a wonderful introduction to the world Bioware has created. Mass Effect 2 did an even better job. Mass Effect2calibrated me. These characters, the universe, and everything else have made me care deeply.

Mass Effect 2 begins with Shepard's death. You heard it right. You are under attack in Normandy. You need to evacuate Joker, but you don't have the resources to do so. So, you die. Cerberus, the terrorist group from the first video game, will make sure you are cured. Two years later, you awaken and find yourself forced to join them and their leader The Illusive Men to defeat the Collectors, creatures that are attacking human colonies.

It really gets you involved right away, and it's a great game. You feel more explosive when the Normandy is destroyed in front of you than any other scene in the first game. Mass Effect 2 doesn't hesitate in introducing new characters. Your first two squadmates will be Miranda and Jacob, both of whom work for Cerberus.

You eventually have a crew that is both familiar and new. Each of them has interesting backstories, which often continue into the third game. The series introduces "loyalty mission" where a squadmate asks you to help them with a personal matter. This mission will make your squadmate "loyal," which opens up the possibility for romance and significantly reduces the chance of them dying in the "Suicide Mission".

Yes, people do indeed die in this game. You must work towards taking on the Collectors. To do this, you will have to fight them. It is a suicide mission according to everyone in your squad. If you aren't loyal, or make poor choices during the final mission you will lose your friends. This was both amazing and terrifying to me. I was afraid to lose people so I kept a guide handy. It's amazing, however, that your decisions actually have consequences.

Mass Effect 2 has a lot to offer in terms of gameplay. The ability to bind squad abilities to shortcuts means that you can use all abilities much faster. This is something I really liked. Unity has replaced Medigel, which can also revive fallen squadmates. Health regeneration is now automatic in this game. The button prompt for taking cover has been replaced by a button prompt so that Shepard doesn’t have to awkwardly rub against walls in order to escape. Oh! There's also armour customization!

Some changes were hard to adjust to. Mass Effect 2 removed the heat system from Mass Effect 1. This meant that you had to consider ammo. I cursed quite often when my favorite submachine gun ran low on bullets. One thing that was interesting were the quicktime events. During cutscenes, a prompt for a renegade or paragon button would appear. Sometimes I had to quickly grab my controller again after I dropped it to get a drink. The addition was a nice touch. It kept me on my toes.

This game raises the stakes story-wise in the best possible ways. It's fascinating to discover the identity and connections between the Collectors and the Reapers. This game is larger than Mass Effect 1 but still manages to keep its characters in mind. You can get very special dialogue for loyalty missions depending on the person you bring. The game does not forget anyone even when they are all together for the final mission. This is an impressive feat.

I also experienced romance in this game, something I had not seen in Mass Effect 1.. Garrus was worth the wait. He and Shepard's banter seamlessly transitions to flirting, so they never feel out-of-character. The charming romance scenes he has inserted throughout the game are a delight. I have no regrets about romancing him so far. It even gets better with Mass Effect 3.

Although this game was very enjoyable, it has its faults. Although the new system of scanning planets and sending out probes to search for materials was very cool, it quickly became tedious. It wasn't always possible to use thirty probes to explore a star-system. You had to sometimes leave one system in order to reach another with a fuel station. A second problem I faced was not knowing what DLC was. It was confusing for a novice player. Inadvertently, I accidentally downloaded the Overlord DLC very early in the game. It was incredible--almost all DLCs in this game were--but it would have been nice to know that I was leaving the main game.

Last but not least, I was not allowed to punch the Illusive Man's face at the conclusion of the game. It was disappointing. It was a good thing that Miranda let me tell him off.