First off a thousand apologies for not writing for over a month. Have been kinda busy/not really motivated to write recently because of some unassuming crap. And revision/exam anxiety.
For those of you who don't know, Mass Effect was Bioware's sci-fi action RPG spectacular that featured an epic story line, fantastic graphics and a rather alluring sex scene that made me smile. Now a couple of years later it's sequel has made a grand appearance, which in the early reviews promised to improve the combat system, character interaction and storyline. Well they definitely got the last bit right. How many other games have you played where the protagonist gets blown away with his or her own ship within five minutes? Exactly, pretty epic.
Like in the first one you play as Commander Shepard, a soldier whose gender went unrecorded by history, to fight in the deep voids of space with the Human Alliance. Or make friends, either way. After thwarting Saren, a renegade Spectre, and an ancient machine race called the Reapers from destroying the Citadel and thus saving human and alien kind, Shepard and the Normandy are attacked by a colossal ship which blows them to kingdom come and should have rendered Shepard dead after being sucked into space but somehow managed to be brought back to life. However Mass Effect is based in the 2100's so OBVIOUSLY all technology is advanced. So much so that a corporate company has brought him back to life after two years and sent him to investigate the disappearance of human colonies. Fairly decent start to an RPG I suppose, although perhaps just a few limitations. Depending on whether or not you saved the Citadel Council will depend a great deal on how people will react to you. Providing you didn't, a new threat has risen (as indeed it must) because no one was brave enough for fight it and if you did save them I guess they were eating space doughnuts for two years.
Personally, I am rather biased considering this is now one of my favourite games of all time. however I do acknowledge a few of the slight downturns, no matter how few they may be. As all critics must. Bioware as usual really came through on this one. Combat wise the game flows much better, as they've done away with that silly burst fire method where you have to duck under cover and suck your thumb while your weapon cools down after prolonged shooting which resulted in overheating. Now you need to gather ammo clips, and they're incredibly easy to get. Kill someone, nick the ammo from around their corpse. Done. I swear that shooting is more accurate now. And thank God they've made combat direction easier instead of me fumbling around trying to remember which was to take cover and which to tell them to shoot some git. Plus now you can get heavy weapons, with the general rocket launchers and others that have like cryo shells which freeze everything. But with enough money no joke here, you can buy a rocket that shoots fucking nukes.
Character interaction is the same as before, where you highlight a key word and then the voice acting develops it further, so as to make the game play feel spontaneous. And ofcourse you've got the blue area for paragon (good) choices and red for bad (renegade) choices. Now you can also interrupt people with these types of choices that effect the mission and you character so it has made steps in the right direction. Although this might be stretching it a bit far as after all the effort I made to pick the soppiest dialogue to woe the lovely lady and all I got was an even shorter bit of space-dress dry humping than I got in the previous one. Maybe it's more promising with different people but hey. Yes in Mass Effect 2 now instead of being able to form relationships with one of two humans or an alien, Commander Shepard can assert his/her sexual desires to pretty much his entire party as he/she sees fit.
There are even more significant changes such as the whole vehicle section has been subtly done away with, which although was more difficult to navigate than a three legged donkey at least made the game feel more expanded. Instead in Mass Effect 2 it's been replaced with the malarkey of mining planets for resources. This might be seen as unnecessary and you don;t even have to but you need them to buy upgrades and get the best ending so it;s just a chore really. Not so bad if you have the strategy guide, but that's not entirely needed to be honest. Although very useful. This is Commander Shepard we're talking about here, he;s supposed to be the hero, he shouldn't have to mine planets for resources he should have to acquire them by shooting them out of a monsters face. If I wanted to be a space quantity surveyor I would play EVE online.
One thing that is very noticeable and also I personally enjoy is that you can now customize your armour, more the colour than the armour itself but that's ok. I liked the idea of going out on to each mission with a new coloured armour plating. Also side missions are more agreeable this time around and feel rather cool. They're quite quick, get you money, resources and experience. And at least now you don't have to trape back to the ship with a fuck load of guns deciding which ones are crap and which are kick-ass because you can pretty much uses one of two guns throughout the whole game and just upgrade it. Hooray.
If you genuinely want my advice I'd have to conclude that if you enjoy RPGs, especially sci-fi, shooting bad guys, deep exploration of a varied and diverse world (or galaxy in this case) and characters that give more to the story than just going along with it because the plot demands them to, then Mass Effect 2 is worth your time.
