Playing through BioWare’s 2007 action-RPG, Mass Effect, I was amazed at how drawn into the story I was – an entire universe opening up before my eyes as I, along with the help of my very diverse crew, defeated a rogue Spectre named Saren along with an ancient and incredibly powerful sentient machine bent on destroying all life in the galaxy. Originally released on the Xbox 360, it was followed up a year later with a PC version featuring an overhauled UI. The PC version was equally incredible and when I heard that Mass Effect 2 would be released simultaneously on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms, geek fireworks went off as I polished up my mouse and keyboard for the coming adventure. Now it’s here – Mass Effect 2 for the PC, and it is amazing.
First thing to note is that BioWare allows you to import your character from the original Mass Effect into the sequel. This allows your decisions to carry over making for an experience that really feels seamless from your previous adventure. If you do not have a character to import, aside from telling you to pick up and play Mass Effect right now – it was great, you shouldn’t worry as BioWare has found some clever moments and ways in the sequel to flesh out the various decisions you needed to make in the original game.
The game opens a short while after the first game ‘ends’ and, without spoiling anything, something so horrific happens that the game flashes forward two years into the future. Shepard wakes up in an unknown location with strange faces and a splitting headache as he is thrust into combat right away.
Mass Effect 2 is a lot more third-person shooter than RPG where its combat is concerned. The game features a Gears of War-like cover system that is vital to utilize throughout the game in order to survive. By pressing the left shift key you can pause the action to bring up a command window allowing you to change your or your squad’s weapons as well as using any powers you or your squad may have. This integrated command window is seamless and the whole combat system is a work of art. It is a perfect blend between shooter and action-RPG.
Visually, Mass Effect 2 is truly a sight to behold on the PC platform – especially if you have a reasonably powerful rig. Like Dragon Age: Origins before it, BioWare has developed their visuals for the PC platform and then backed off where needed on the console variants. The only place where the visuals looked ‘off’ were the pre-rendered cutscenes showing the Normandy, your starship, making use of Mass Relays which are strewn about the galaxy. For those of your who do not know, Mass Relays harness great energies to allow passing starships to jump long distances around the cosmos. In Mass Effect 2’s PC version, these cutscenes have artifacting and pixelization – most likely due to their not being rendered in the high resolution I was running it at. However, even with this small issue the rest of the game looks beautiful.
The game’s score is excellent and features many of the themes from Mass Effect taken to a darker level. Many have said Mass Effect 2 is the ‘[The] Empire Strikes Back’ of the planned game trilogy (yes they are working on Mass Effect 3). Voice over work is top-notch, with many of the first game’s cast returning and reprising their roles along with a lot of new voices, including Martin Sheen (The Final Countdown) and Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix Trilogy). In-game audio effects are crisp and really ‘pop’, especially when the action gets heated – machine gun noises, biotic power hums, and people grunt and yell their battle calls. Equally-impressive are the more reserved audio effects such as the ambient noises of the Normandy when you walk about its many rooms in-between missions.
The overall gameplay is a lot like the first one in that, once you get the gist of the story, you are thrown into a large and open galaxy where you go from system to system. You can explore, recruit people for your crew, and various other types of missions. Mass Effect 2 features some new aspects to the gameplay, such as fuel management. In sectors and systems you will manually ‘pilot’ the Normandy from location to location by clicking and holding with your left mouse button. In-system travel does not cost you fuel but if you travel from system to system within a sector you will burn fuel. This fuel can be replenished at fuel depots, usually located by the sector’s Mass Relay. You will also mine planets by manually scanning them from orbit. Launching probes to a scanned area will grab minerals from which you can use to build technologies on your ship.
One very daunting fact about Mass Effect 2 is that nearly every choice you make during the game will affect its ultimate outcome. It is possible to have every member of your crew, including Shepard, killed in the final confrontation. In this case, you will NOT be able to import the character into Mass Effect 3! It is also possible, albeit VERY difficult, to lose no one in the final assault. The re-playability based on all of these various choices is huge and between checking out all the ‘what-ifs’ as well as the upcoming DLC planned for the game, it is easy to think we will still be playing Mass Effect 2 in some form by time Mass Effect 3 is released.
One area where Mass Effect 2 is lacking is in its choice of weapons. New to the series is a special heavy weapons slot in which you can equip a ‘big gun’ – this can be anything from a grenade launcher to a particle beam cannon. These special weapons do not get reloaded very often so it is important to save them for the big fights. While BioWare has added the sub-machine gun weapon type, your overall choice of weapons per category is very limited. Thankfully, you will be able to upgrade the various weapon types by researching new technologies throughout the game.
The only other part of the game I took issue with was its ‘big reveal’ which, as I stated early, I will not spoil. While I am sure it was intended to come off as cool and ominous, the way the camera is angled and audio come off it just seemed like I was watching some bad B-movie. Even the line said by Shepard during the reveal is corny. Thankfully, the final battle is still fun despite the cornball reveal and I thoroughly enjoyed the finale. After you complete the game, you are given the option to start over with your character having all the items and experience that you ended with or just continuing to explore the cosmos – getting ready for the DLC and just seeing if the decisions you made throughout the game paid off.
Mass Effect 2 is an incredible experience. It is just enough shooter for the shooter fans and just enough RPG for the RPG fans. BioWare has really outdone themselves and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the crew of the Normandy next time. Even though it is still only January, Mass Effect 2 is easily my game of the year thus far.
*Disclosure: BioWare/EA provided GamingShogun with a copy of the PC version of Mass Effect 2 to review over the course of several days.
