Mass Effect 2 Review for Xbox 360

     Why have I taken so long with this review? When you have something that is regarded as perfection in your little world, you just can't form coherent sentences. Your speech is muddled by affection surpassing that of your own mum (Simon's rubbing off on me TOO much). I didn't know how I would end up writing this review; Would I write too much? Would I write anything that someone could objectively understand? I think I'm going to try to write as little as possible, leave a lot in the unknown territory of things. I personally believe that the less you know about an amazing game, the better it is. I don't want to ruin perfection for anyone.

Gameplay

+ Take cover, aim, shoot - That’s all there is to it. Just take the gameplay of any cover-based third person shooter and you got Mass Effect 2. Find cover, press the button to cling to it, aim, then shoot as much as you can. You can also hurdle over and sprint to other cover which is new for the series.  Stats used to be the focus of the gameplay in ME1 but this time, around, it’s all about the action. It all works great too. I had problems with it but I have a loose thumbstick (thanks Resident Evil 5...) so my guy would keep going out of cover because it kept thinking I was pushing out of cover. Other than that, it somehow feels more refined or deeper than the mechanics of a "Gears" game and that's a feeling I enjoy.
     Another aspect is that every mission is not just shoot this and that. You will be presented with different missions dealing with stealth, investigation, protection, and more. All of them are completely welcome additions and none of them were annoying in the least. It's rare that you see a development team take new directions within it's formula and succeed everytime. 

+ Pro-Biotics - With biotics in their current state, you control a bit more than what you used to in Mass Effect 1. Now you use biotics to change ammo type, use psycho-kinetic powers, and utilize technological powers. You also get less of them due to the new skill trees so you have to be more strategic when it comes to what class you choose and what party members you choose to work with. Playing on normal, you don't really need biotics very much. You pretty much just use them for fun. 

     On the harder difficulties however, you really need to think about what powers to use on who and when the best time is to execute it. You also want to combine powers for maximum effect. For example, there's a move where you dash at your enemy and you make impact using your whole body and they get thrown back a couple of feet. If you want to get the most out of this though, you might want to have a party member levitate the target causing them to fly across the entire room when you crash into them. They also gain damage from the impact, the hitting of the wall and then hitting the ground. 

     Some of the biotics also have unique ways of being executed. For instance, the pull biotic will should out an energy blast that levitates targets out of cover. You can tweak the way it seeks out targets though. The blast will alway home in on the target but you can aim up hight making it curve down from the sky or shoot it to the side making it swing around corners. It is EXTREMELY satisfying. You can even advance the power to pull multiple targets at once as well.

+ War has changed - Guns ain't like they used to be. Now you use thermal clips or what a normal person might call regular ammunition clips with a set amount of ammo that you have to reload. In other words, they work like normal guns now with the exception of universal ammo. They no longer overheat and have infinite ammo... Well they do still overheat but that's only in the story's context. Sorry, I'm confusing things. Anyway, now you need to look in the environment and around fallen enemies for ammo clips. This was extremely hard to get used to as I had JUST came out of Mass Effect 1 and you never had to pay attention to ammo. The clips themselves don't call a lot of attention to themselves either if you're not specifically looking for them. They do make a extremely visible flash to show themselves to you, but once again, if you're not looking for them you won't see them. I played the first 20 or so hours with a good friend of mine watching me and he was constantly pointing out during the entire 20 hours that I had missed a lot of ammo clips as I progressed. This doesn't even come close to being a problem, but it's worth noting. Should you come into ME2 without playing ME1, I don't think you'll have any problems with this.
     Guns are also more strategic in ME2, at least they appear to be. Certain guns work better against shields, barriers, and armor so you have to think of what guns you want to use in certain situations. And instead of constantly getting better guns, you normally just get a few different guns for each type there is, i.e. 3 different snipers, 2 handguns, 2 shotguns. They instead choose a different feel in exchange for different power stats. This sniper rifle could shoot faster, have more ammunition, but will be balanced with less power and less accuracy, or you could choose the other sniper with opposite stats. All of the guns and their variables are purpose built and are designed to take the specific play of your character and his/her biotics into account. There's a deep layer of strategy that comes into play when you get on the harder difficulties and it's EXTREMELY satisfying when you get everything to work seamlessly together. It's likely, however, that you won't notice any of this if you play on a lower difficulty setting.

+ Choose your destiny - There are numerous missions in ME2 and they all feel like they have some substance to them unlike the side missions in ME1 which just felt repeat missions with different contexts. Also, along the path of the game, you need to make heavier decisions than you were faced with in the first game. It felt as though a number of them had consequences that would lead to being further explored in the next game. And one more thing, you always know where you're going now. All of the major hubs are marked on your star charts and all of your missions, both main and side, are marked next to the corresponding planets and galaxies associated with them. You always know where you're going and how much you need to do.

= Less RPG, more action-adventure - If there was something to be disappointed about is that the RPG elements that were present in the first game are almost not even present here. They've either been streamlined or omitted which, even though some of them were good, the result feels like a more polished game. They also left enough of it in to still customize characters the way you want them to be for your preferred performance and style. Anyone that loves stats and equipment shouldn't be expecting it here. Expect a moderate choice of skills and a deeper real-time action experience.

- Scanning... Anomaly detected... - They replaced exploring worlds in the vehicle with scanning planets for resources. The only thing the resources are good for are upgrades but it's so annoying and slow that you would never do it if you didn't need those upgrades. Just the fact that it's bland and slow and needs reworking for ME3 is all that really needs to be said about this.

Story and Presentation

+ And our hero's struggle continues - The story is very deep, very emotional, and very intimate. Even without having choices to reflect on from the first game, you could still believe the story was custom tailored just for you. Should you have data from the first game, your choices will indeed be reflected in ME2's story making it that much more personal. Running alongside of the main cannon for ME2, I had a deep, personal struggle within the game. Because I made an uninformed choice in the first game, I performed a great deed but with a large cost and now the galaxy loathes humans and doesn't trust them. So at the same time that I'm trying to save the galaxy again, I'm dealing with my mistakes from the past and trying to correct them by proving humans aren't these hidden-agenda, meat-bags. I haven't tried different story paths yet but I believe the game is structured in a way that would not have the galaxy hating human beings if you had gone in a different direction. I really don't want to say anything more specific than I already have, just know it's worth all of your time and that you won't be able to resist late-night excursions through the game just to find out what happens next.


+ Our choices shape the future - Almost everything you did in the first game is reflected here, some in larger ways than others. It also leads you to think very carefully about the choices you make in this game. The fact that your decisions are so much larger this time around also adds to the previous statement. I cannot imagine how my choices will take shape in the third installment but I'm dying to find out.


+ A dream come true - I believe that everyone has at least one sci-fi, fantasy, or anime that features a large cast of characters working towards a shared goal; Whether it be Serenity, Cowboy Bebop, Stargate, Outlaw Star, Star Trek, Buffy, Xena, the motions that those characters go through are all represented in Mass Effect. If someone said you had the opportunity to build personal relationships with those characters and to work with them to achieve your goals, would you let it pass you by? I don't think so. Then why aren't you playing Mass Effect already?


+ Encyclopedic knowledge of the galaxy - I read it all, every word. In the game, you have access to a codex which will inform you about nearly every imaginable aspect of Mass Effect's world: How it's weapons work, classifications of space ships, different races' biologies, religions, governments, technologies, wars, militaries, etc. The thing that's so great about this is that it's not throw-away information like in Final Fantasy 13. It gives context to the way the game and the story plays out. Here are some examples:

• Guns now use heat-sink clips because it has been researched that a soldier can reload his gun faster than waiting for the entire thing the cool down. The result is now reloading your guns instead of having infinite ammo and overheating weapons. They also explain how the ammo is universal.

• Element zero takes extremely high heats to form. The result is that if you're looking for that resource, you might want to look for planets that are closest to the suns of their respective systems.

• All of the bios on the different races will explain how they react in certain situations and conversations as well as explaining why they normally take certain roles within a community. It allows you to feel more informed when communicating with other species. Why are there so many Turians in Citadel Security? Because Turians are a race that believe very highly in serving out justice. They almost have no crime on their planet because justice is such a revered thing where they come from.

     It's not as detailed as in the game but you get the idea. Your codex is something that if you take the time to read, you're almost instantly rewarded for it. It just adds so much to the overall experience that it's definitely something not to be skipped over. 

+ Oh, all the places we will go - All of the environments are a bit smaller than they use to be but as a result of that, they end up having more personality and life within them. I would say that it did slightly suck not being able to go around the Presidium at the Citadel anymore. I might suggest that if you want a closer feeling to the environments in this game, at least a closer one than what's offered here, do play the first Mass Effect. It helps build the worlds around you in your mind. I wouldn't say it's required at all though. 
     The places you go in ME2 are also a lot darker and in-depth. You're given the feeling that you are thoroughly exploring all there is to any given environment and it connects you even more to setting of this epic story.


+ Tell me what I want to hear - The dialogue is priceless in this game. It never gets old or boring. Having already gone through the game, I'm trying to speed through the harder difficulties but the longer I play, the less I skip the conversations. Now I sit there listening to every single one another time, just as interested as I was the first time I heard them all. The voice acting and dialogue is amazing.


+ Everyone is different - The characters and their personalities are so varied and different this time around. And they're all so interesting that any time you have something you can do to find out more about a character or gain a new one, you'll do it as fast as you can. I assure you that you'll rarely skip out on any conversations you could have with them since every one of them are so interesting. You can also do what are called "loyalty missions" which serve as buffers for that given character's background. Once completed they will gain a new ability and appearance. There should be a good handful of characters that have the ability to appeal to everyone who plays this game. There's someone for everyone, and I wouldn't dream of spoiling any of them... Well maybe one...

+ GARRUS!!!!! - He's ****ing back and just as badass. He's one of the characters that I share an extreme camaraderie with. Unfortunately, he's one of the characters with the least amount of conversation pieces. I do feel something deep with this character though. He just feels like a friend I've known my entire life and I feel compelled to sacrifice anything if it meant his well-being. Without spoiling too much, I actually felt compelled at one point to go back in time (play a previous save) just to see if I could make things swing more in his favor only to be saddened that my efforts could not change the future. If you love this character as much as I do, Bioware's going to have a field day with your heart in ME2. I'm not suggesting anything rash happens, you'll just have to play the game and find out what I mean.


+ All you need is love - I'm not going to dive into this one very much at all but this time, with the exception of just a couple characters, no one is off limits when it comes to romance. I will say that there's a lot more choice as a male Shepard than a female Shepard which is disappointing. Sorry, ladies...

Graphics

+You're gonna want an HDTV for this one - Character models are very detailed. One of which is a krogan that is so well rendered that I feel like it's a high-res cutscene every time I talk to him and see the way his face moves and what his skin looks like. There's detail in every nook and cranny of this game and I can imagine feeling very left out if I couldn't view it all in HD. 

Sound

+ Flawless Victory - Just as it were in the first game, sound was obviously important to BioWare when it comes to Mass Effect. It seals the deal when it comes to how believable, visceral, and tangible the world around you feels. Prepared to be blown away by earth-shaking explosions and seduced by detailed voice work.

- Where'd you go? - There is a problem in a few copies of the game where in one scene on disk 2, the dialogue just cuts out. It's not a widespread problem so I wouldn't be worried about it if you go to pick up a copy. But the problem exists and there's no known fix for it. It did kill the mood for me... *Weeps...*

Should you buy it?

     YES, a billion times over, yes! And if you haven't played Mass Effect 1, pick that up too. This is one of the greatest games I've ever played. BioWare officially has me sold on anything that has Mass Effect on the cover. I loved the game so much that I actually bought it twice! I bought the game for $30 around the time of it's release (I got lucky getting it that cheap) and I felt terrible that I didn't get the limited edition. I recently came across one for $100 and I snatched it up immediately without hesitation. I have no regrets. This game is worth almost any amount of cash.
     Despite how much I wrote, I left out A LOT of things. I could go into a lot of detail about the many aspects of Mass Effect 2 but it's very important to me that people feel like they discovered this game. If you can't get the personal feeling that goes with this game you'll miss out on a lot and that becomes a greater risk when you know too much about it. So I hope I didn't spoil much at all while convincing every one of you that if you don't have this game, there isn't even a way to express how lame you are as a person. Seriously, play it. NOW!

Mass Effect 2 was developed by BioWare and published by EA for the Xbox 360 and PC. Played through normal mode as a Vanguard Paragon for 50+ hours and still struggling to finish the game on Insanity mode, clocking in at 20+ hours so far. That's a lot of playtime for one game.

Mass Effect Review for Xbox 360

     Mass Effect 2 has been released a couple weeks ago, and keeping with the goals of Aegis Reviews, we're reviewing the first in the series to see if it's worth going through to get to the sequel. Mass Effect is an RPG with third-person shooter action. The developer, Bioware, is famous for their inclusions of choice in gameplay and epic storytelling with a vast and solid foundation for their story's environments, inhabitants and plot. Mass Effect acts almost as an ambassador though, utilizing familiar third-person shooting elements which opens up RPG storytelling to a much broader audience.
     In Mass Effect, you are able to create your own character and make your own choices so it's not really about one specific person, it's more about yourself. The plot has more to do with you and your ragtag group of space explorers solving the problems of the universe, more specifically a problem that has the potential to wipe out the existence of all living organisms.

Gameplay

+ Time to lock and load - In Mass Effect, you are able to utilize guns and/or "biotics" which are essentially force/telekinetic powers. What you're able to use depends on your class though. There's a class for every play style; all guns, all biotics, defensive biotics with ranged weapons and offensive bitotics with short-range power-house guns.

     The battles within the game are extremely short. Not in the way that there's not so much to kill but rather that the game seems to guide the battles down a more realistic path. Enemies don't really put up much resistance to your weapons and you don't either. At the very least, it's like that for the majority of the game especially at the beginning. When you first start playing, you're probably going to expect it to play out like Gears of War or some other third-person shooter where you're used to taking damage, shrugging it off and then moving into a more strategic location. This is not the case of Mass Effect. You need to make sure you know where the enemies are and you know where to go to take the least damage, for you and your teammates. Otherwise, you'll end up running into cover, aiming at someone and then you'll notice that for some reason, you're only one shot away from death. 

     That being said, it may be hard in the beginning to acclimate to the pace and style of firefights in Mass Effect but you'll get used to it and it'll help shape how you handle the rest of the game. Then every battle will be quick and decisive with all of the victories landing in your favor.

+ Hug a skill-tree - On to the RPG side of things. You got your basic skill trees. Every time you go up a level, you will be able to place points into a specific skill for your character. These skills range from hacking, biotic powers, being adept with specific weaponry, etc. As you raise in level, you are also given less points so you need to think about which skills to master and which skills to buffer. You can't have them all. On top of that, you can affect your character's stats with mods for your armor, weapons, etc.

= I can feel the power flowing through me... - Biotics are interesting. While there are even classes built around biotics, they can feel rather boring or useless. In the beginning of the game, as you will be putting your points into many other skills, biotics will come off as rather weak and ineffective compared to just killing the enemy as quickly as possible with your guns. They only become very useful when maxed out and by that time, you'll already be killing foes instantly with your insane weaponry. I forgot I even had biotics. If you choose to use them strategically though, they show a bit more use. You can use biotics to lift enemies from cover, push them away, cover yourself with kinetic shielding, and more. I only found a really good use for two of them and one of those only became useful at the very end of the game which would be the kinetic shield. It's a good thing I maxed it out or I would have been screwed. It's cool that they're there and it brings something different to the table but it just felt like it wasn't implemented very well. Unless you had more than one biotic user in your party. Then it's sheer chaos for all who oppose you! Except for when you're all waiting for a recharge on your biotics... Then you're screwed.

+ Make your choice - Mass Effect 2 is about choice and how your choices change and shape the future. Most of the game you'll be tasked with relatively small decisions such as if you want to bring so-and-so along with you on a certain quest, do you want be a jerk to this person, etc. As you progress though, you'll be tasked with larger and larger decisions; Do you want to let this person live? Do you want to wipe this race off the face of the universe? They gain much more weight and they tend to stray into the gray area. You will care a lot about the choices you make and what the outcome will be when you make that choice. The other side of your choices is that they are to stay with you as you move through the series. Mass Effect is supposed to be a trilogy and every choice you make determines what path you go down in the sequel and the finale. That's a lot of weight and pressure to put on someone. And from what it seems, they do carry a bit of weight. I guess we'll see in the review for the sequel but, wow, are the consequences of your actions heavy.


- Never have money when you need it... - Things are expensive in Mass Effect. And they're things that you REALLY need. When you see the prices at the start of the game, you are floored by how much armor and weapons cost. You have no idea how to get that much cash. Then you start to get large sums of money. And towards the end, you have ginormous amounts of cash. It was so unbalanced. You get shafted for the beginning of the game since you have to rely on your crappy skills and low-end armor and guns, then you automatically go straight to top-class and money becomes useless. It's a barrier that more casual players might have a hard time getting through, turning them off from the game early on.

- SAVE ME! - Most important advice you can get about playing this game: Save as often as you can. Remember that. Why that might be a hard thing to remember is because Mass Effect does have an auto-save feature. This will make you think that it's saving after every major event or so. It's not. It only saves when you go to a new world or other rare occurrences. Good job, you found new minerals and elements, you found 3 lost technologies, you fended off 2 ambushes that would have decimated any lesser being, you saved a planet and... Oh, you died? You say it took you an hour to do?... Oh, you didn't save... Have fun doing it again! 

     The other factor that makes saving often hard to do is the game's reluctance to let you save. It will choose the oddest places and times to not let you save. And it'll do it often. For an RPG where you could have a conversation with an NPC for 20 minutes and go up 2 levels while it advertises the fact that it has an auto-save feature, it better damn well be saving after every quest completed, every quest item collected and conversation completed. Or at least have the decency to let me save WHENEVER I want.

- I wanna hold your hand- Ew, it's sweaty! Nevermind.... - I don't necessarily like being held by the hand in a game meaning that I don't like it when the game makes everything I need to do so blatantly obvious that I don't need to think. In the case of Mass Effect, it just drops you in an entire universe filled with numerous galaxies with even more numerous solar systems filled with even more numerous planets. For them to tell me to go somewhere specific and then not even tell me that I made it to the correct location when I've arrived, you have no idea what the hell is going on when you first start the game. Eventually, you'll get used to navigating around the universe and finding your way around planets and such. It's just that when they finally turn you loose to all of these different destinations without guidance, it can almost halt your progress through the game if you can't persevere.

- You're boring and slow... - Mass Effect is work. I guess you could say that it falls into similar trappings of Assassin's Creed. Battles are exciting but it's hard to approach them differently each time so it begins to feel repetitive, not to mention that right when you start to enjoy the firefight, everyone's already dead and gone. Anytime you're given something to do, it could easily be finished within minute. Unfortunately, it's made longer just because everything is slow. Your walking speed is slow, your vehicle is slow, loading times take forever. The only reason why the game takes so many hours to beat is simply because everything just goes at such a slow pace and when you finally have something fun to do, it's done in the blink of an eye.

+ ...But man, do you know how to finish! - It needs to be said that the ending of Mass Effect is incredible. It's fun, it's fast paced, it's emotionally heavy, and then it sums up with a most awesome score at the credits. If Mass Effect had battles throughout the game like it did at the end, This would be one of those absolutely perfect games. I had so much fun, I felt so powerful, and I felt like everything and everyone was really relying on my success for their survival, it was such a rush! Here's to hoping Mass Effect 2 can capture this moment again. It makes for the most memorable of all gaming experiences.

Story and Presentation

+ While you were out... - Mass Effect takes place in 2165 I think? Pretty far in the future. In that 150+ years, a lot must happen right? Normally, you'd think that you'd never know about how things developed so much and you'd just put it aside. That's not Bioware's style. You've got question's, they have answers. There is so much information, you feel like you know about as much about what's gone on at this point and time as you do our own past and history. It goes into how we came into the current age, our relationships with other sentient beings and how we created those relationships, the history of those other alien races, wars that have gone on in the past, how certain technology was developed. They even go into detail about how weapons work. Not just who makes it and what it's used for but also why you don't need ammo and how the weapon legitimately functions. Even all of the planets you come across in these other galaxies, every planet has a description of what the planet is made of and what it's atmosphere is like down to the last scientific detail. Whenever someone briefly mentions the "First Contact War", you know exactly when it happened, where it occured and who was involved. The attention to detail is amazing.

+ Welcome to reality - The writing is so good in this game, almost every single person you come across, major or minor pertaining to plot relevance, feels like a legitimate person with their own background. They feel real when you talk to them. They're not some boring NPC that you only care about at the moment and forget later on. You care about them all the time. You care about the decisions you make and how others will view it. It adds to the weight of your decisions and the consequences of those decisions may wear down on you, make you feel like you made a legitimate sacrifice for the greater good or that you're a terrible person deserving of punishment. I know I felt it. 

     In the end, you don't play Mass Effect for the gameplay. If that's fun, it's just a plus. You play Mass Effect for it's story, background, characters and immersion. It's the real reason why you suffer out the slow pacing and load times. You want to continue your impact on this universe and you want to know more about these characters you interact with.

+ In the future... - Think of Star Trek, Star Wars, insert your favorite sci-fi series here and think for a second. What do you love about it? Have you ever wanted to be there? Have you ever wanted to go through a door that goes "whoosh?" How about walking around the ship and interacting with the crew? The graphics, the sound, the dialogue, the history, everything comes together in such a way that it brings your imagination to life. You are in the future. You are the captain of your own space crew and you have a personal relationship with each and every crew member. There's some wondrous design at work here and it's absolutely stunning.

Graphics

= It's all so beau-...Loading...-tiful! - The in game graphics are pretty and detailed. One of the best looking games I've played in a while. It's clear though that the engine's got some problems. You see a lot of textures popping in, there's lots of frame-rate slowdown. And then there's the fact that Bioware reuses a ton of their designs. They'll use the same rooms and buildings for everything. Same with planet layouts, they just color it differently and call it another name when it's exactly the same planet as another. There's also a lot of emptiness in the game so there's not much to look at. I'm hoping a good number of these things are fixed in the sequel.

Sound

+ Pew pew! Pew! - If you have a good setup for sound, you're in for a treat. Everything sounds just like it does in a sci-fi movie or series and it has the appropriate weight to it's sound; The weight of a door opening up, the blast of a gun, the explosion of a grenade. Nothing sounds like it's fake. Everything sounds tangible and real. It's attention to this level of detail that only makes immersion a more natural step. I suggest that if you're working off of normal TV speakers, go get a nice pair of headphones. It's just that worth it.

+  To be or not to be? - The acting in this game is nothing short of brilliant. Every character is teeming with life and history. The dialogue is so natural and feels consistent with any given character's behavior. Once again, it's just one less step to immersion when you want to talk to videogame character for 10 minutes and you are eating up every word they say. Attention to detail people, attention to detail. The only thing that was bad about the voice-acting was your character's voice. It was just so dead and without emotion at time. It rarely felt natural. Though, being that this character was made to fit for everyone who ever plays Mass Effect, and the fact that the main focus of the game is self expression and making personal choices, I can see why the voice is what it is. It's easy to overlook and accept so it rarely ever break your immersion with the game.

Should you buy it?

     Rent it. While there's plenty here to make for a special game worth purchase, you really need to be interested in the story and background of things. It's how you get the most out of the experience and it's a LOT of reading to do. In other words, to invest yourself in what this game has to offer, it's a lot of work, work that rewards greatly mind you. If you were wanting a game for it's gameplay, I just don't think this is what you'd be looking for. It's another one of those games that relies on the experience it offers and the story it has to tell. Given how much you need to invest and how monotonous some aspect can be, this game is definitely not for everyone. When you rent it, it gives you a chance to see what you're getting yourself into. Choose whether to buy it or not from there. Otherwise, it does have a new game plus mode where you can continue to raise your character to the level cap, you can replay the game and choose different dialogue choices or make different decisions to see all of the outcomes of your actions, and then there's a couple of DLC packs available for it. To anyone who takes gives the effort to complete this game and invests the time to dive into it's grand history, I hope you really enjoy the experience. I know I did.

Mass Effect was developed by BioWare Corp. and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Played through Normal as a Paragon Vanguard clocking in at about 30+ hours after doing every sidequest available. Review based on Xbox360 version.