Banana Scoop

It’s flip week I suppose, seeing as I covered the sequel to a game before the actual game came out. Anyway, this week’s game of the week is Mass Effect 2. Featuring an all-star cast of lovable characters, my favorite of which is currently Doctor Mordin Solus after his glorious rendition of The Major-General’s song. With a wide-array of ways to play with an even wider array of things to say, Mass Effect 2 is definitely one of the best games I’ve played to date. Check out the rest of the article to get my in-depth review of Mass Effect 2.

Since I’m playing on the PS3 edition of the game, I had to forgo playing the original Mass Effect and get the downloadable content known as the ‘Cerberus’ pack to make the choices from ME1 to carry into ME2. It really loses a lot of value if you just so happen to skip the events in the first game, seeing as a lot of major choices are made that carry into the second game. The same goes for the second game carrying into the third. Anyway, the game has a lot of replay value with a lot of features that I’m going to end up covering, so strap in.

First and foremost, I want to talk about the story. The most integral part of Mass Effect 2 is the story, as it is with any game in the Mass Effect universe. It starts you off (in the PS3 edition) by introducing you to the world of Mass Effect with a comic known as the ‘Genesis’ comic. Essentially it retells the story from the original Mass Effect and even lets you make some of the bigger choices in the game. Who to ‘woo’ and if Wrex lives are two of the major choices I can think of. Either way, there’s a lot of content before you even get to the first mission. The initial cutscene throws you into the midst of a battle between the Normandy SR-1 and an unknown battle cruiser with its sights set on the ship of our heroes. There are some choices to make here, although none that I can remember too well after almost 30 hours into the gorram game.

I figure its okay for me to delve into the gritty details considering how long this game has been out, and since I have no multiplayer mode to discuss this time, I suppose its okay. Shepard is remade by Cerberus with the intent of being used to help them fend off an incoming reaper invasion. Human colonies have been wiped off the grid without a trace, many of the inhabitants vanishing into thin air. It’s Shepard’s job to stop that. In order to do that however, he needs a crack team of the galaxies best mercs and assassins. You assemble a team and learn that the agents of the reapers are the ‘collectors’, a highly advanced race with advanced technologies thought to be a myth by those who have never seen one. Not as legendary as the reapers themselves but all the while mysterious in their own right. You learn that the reapers repurposed the Protheans to create the ‘collectors’ and must travel through the Omega 4 relay in order to stop an all out invasion. That’s all I’ll end up spoiling, however, as I still feel bad spoiling an entire game in a single post.

The gameplay (in transition from 3 to 2) is much slower and a lot more slowly paced than its sequel, with the battle scenes moving a little too slow for my tastes. I preferred the in your face action that I got from Mass Effect 3, but beggars can’t be choosers in any case. Additionally, the battles were a little dull for my tastes, with the only enemy worth taking down always having a shield/armor/health combination that made them incredibly easy to distinguish aside from the flashy moves and weapons they used against you. Overall I can’t complain as much as I do because when I look back I see the release date and have to remind myself that this game didn’t come out this year. I criticize it for having faults a game this year wouldn’t have most likely. Either way, I play this game for the story, as anyone else should, not the gameplay.

Overall Mass Effect 2 is a great game and definitely worth buying for those of you interested in a game with a great story and memorable characters. It’s also a nice way to set yourself up for Mass Effect 3, allowing you to import your character from ME2, which in turn unlocks a lot of options for the character (including 6 romance options otherwise unavailable in ME3). I have definitely fallen in love with the game and its universe, as well as the general atmosphere it provides during a playthrough. If you haven’t yet, check it out and let me know what you think!