Continuing my reviews of the Mass Effect trilogy, I have recently finished my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2, and am eager to break down the positives and negatives of this gaming giant.
Without going too far into spoilers, Mass Effect 2 takes place two years after the events of the first, allying a presumed-dead Commander Shepard with a world of morally dubious organisations and questionable characters in order to prevent a new, covert plot that threatens humanity’s progress in the galaxy, this time by the Collectors.
Exploring a different, darker side of the Mass Effect universe, the new squad-mates to be recruited, including a few old friends from the previous game, are much more three-dimensional, having their own unique personalities, missions, reactions and relationships to both Shepard and each other, engaging in various conversations throughout the story that you can listen to, and develop an emotional attachment to. Be they close squadmates or lower ranking crewmembers, they all have personal, funny and touching moments
This makes it even more gut-wrenching when, due to actions that you may or may not have thought of the implications of your decisions earlier in the game, these characters are emotionally or physically scarred, and could even die, something that only applied to a small set of characters in the previous game.
Unless you play the game extremely carefully, the chances are that not all of your crew will make it to the end of the game alive. That certainly didn’t happen to me, and the implications those deaths had on both the other characters of this game as well as going forward into the final part of the trilogy filled me with the kind of nostalgic sadness that games like this usually don’t.
The gameplay is also a significant improvement – streamlining the gunplay and level design with varied and stimulating enemy types, fast-paced combat, a recharging healthbar, and jaw-dropping set-pieces, which, although decreases the difficulty, makes the game dynamic and efficient in its shootout encounters, and compensates for the large quantities of content to sink your teeth into in the Terminus Systems, even without the DLC content, which is also even higher quality than lots of the main game, and definitely worth the money, not to mention it helps to connect all three games together in a more coherent way, with Lair of the Shadow Broker concluding an arc set up in 1, and Arrival tying in to the opening of 3, not to mention the incredible Overload mission, the bonus squadmates Zaeed and Kasumi and the new armours and weapons.
Graphics are another key improvement; as engaging and immersive as the world of the first Mass Effect is, its lack of graphical quality left it in a floaty, dreamlike state, without any visual relatability, and a very dated aesthetic. Mass Effect 2 completely rectifies this, and for a game that came out ten years ago, still holds up today, a great achievement considering the great technical strides the industry has since made.
Every environment, every texture and every facial animation has a realism that leaves you with a grin every time you open the game, most notably in the first and final hours, cutscenes and combat encounters.
I remember thinking when I first played this game several weeks ago, just how amazing Shepard’s armour looked in combat – its movements and fine details made even the more mundane missions a wonder to watch. No more flat textures or junky mannerisms, just the pinnacle of perfection for the time it came out, and really marks the technical milestone for games as a whole.
Unfortunately, where it fell short for me was the main story. The primary villains, whilst fun to fight for a variety of gameplay and narrative reasons, felt a little clichéd, due to the nature of the game requiring mining, exploration and completing a vast array of side-quests and loyalty missions, and left only about five main story missions, many of which were a little too short to fully appreciate the scope of the enemies Shepard faces.
I think that this problem is not necessarily a fault of the game itself, but rather its placement in the series as the middle-point, and a problem that occurs in most trilogies; the purpose the story has to serve is to improve and expand upon the original story, whilst preparing for the final decisive chapter in Mass Effect 3. Because of this, it has to put in a whole lot of work in all aspects of the world – building a selection of characters to play roles in the next part, setting up plot threads that involve entire alien species, etc. This is required to complete the experience, but does sadly leave Mass Effect 2 in a position where character and world was placed above story and antagonists, both of which the first game excelled in.
That being said, this does make the emotional attachment to each of the crewmates enormous , which made most of the memorable and emotive experiences I have had in this series have come from this game, particularly the opening and closing missions as I mentioned earlier, and the game itself could instead be interpreted as the preparation for a single, decisive mission at the climax, rather than simply a short game with half a million side-quests, with the player living in the fast-approaching shadow of the suicide mission, one of the most revered quests in all of gaming, and for good reason.
The constant sense of danger, palpable dread and ultimately triumphant feeling that the player experiences before, during and looking back on it, knowing that every decision made affects the lives of those around them made it my all-time favourite part of any game I have played. I assure you, whatever criticisms you could level at the rest of the game will be nullified once you play this mission.
It may not be the best game ever made; it is flawed, has various pacing issues and falls for a lack of story direction for the majority of the play through, but in spite of all of this, I am eagerly looking forward to my next play thorough, something that I wouldn’t think of many other games with the amount of hours that I put in to it. This game gets a 9.5 out of 10.
9.5 OUT OF 10
SPOILER SECTION
I don’t usually like time-jumps in franchises that I get invested in – they typically skip over heaps of character development and leave you with the shadows of the former characters that you grew fond of. Fortunately, this isn’t the case for most of the aspects of the game. For one, the former squadmates mostly have minor roles in the story (except for Tali and Garrus), and don’t change too drastically in terms of personality, despite the fact that you’ve missed two years of the story. And by cutting the ties to various aspects of the previous game, it allows you to become immersed in the undercover, roguish new story in the Terminus system, losing most of the bureaucratic, council related story in favour for the much more entertaining encounters with the mysterious Illusive Man.
The DLC content is also great. Kasumi and Zaeed both have unique and distinctive personalities, and whilst they don’t have recruitment missions or full conversation or romance options, they did provide some of the most memorable loyalty mission and mission dialogues that made them a welcome addition to the team.
Lair of the Shadow Broker makes Liara’s involvement in the game much more than the mere cameo she gets on Illium, and develops her character as you get to see her more ruthless side contrasted with the calm and peaceful character in the first game, adopting the mantle of the Shadow Broker and controlling the criminal intelligence of the whole galaxy as a force for good, allowing her to share aa touching moment with Shepard on the Normandy.
Overlord may be the contender for the best of the DLC’s content-wise. It involves a Cerberus research facility, a rogue human-AI hybrid, a semi – open world area to explore with the Hammerhead and unsettling imagery straight out of a horror game. Seeing Doctor Archer’s brother gruesomely fused with metal and tubes was both disturbing and sad, having four levels prior to build up the mystery, suspense and investment for such a powerful payoff.
The end of the game also leaves Shepard in an incredibly interesting position, mourning the losses of the crew before seemingly getting to work preparing for the imminent Reaper invasion, whilst also facing repercussions on Earth for the actions taken in the Arrival DLC, which perfectly leads into the next game, regardless of its strange story relevance being relegated to a less compelling DLC to the main game. It felt as if it was made solely to bridge the gap between the end of Mass Effect 2 and the opening of Mass Effect 3, when there was no build up to the reaper invasion, although critiquing that would be more to critique Mass Effect 3, so I won’t go too far into that.
The loyalty missions of each character were for the most part, extremely enjoyable. They expand upon every faction in the series, along with having each character engage in an internal struggle that either pays off in their loyalty, or puts them at risk if they haven’t been fulfilled. Take Tali, for example. Unless you have high paragon or renegade scales, she has to either lose her place among her people to protect the legacy of her father, or you reveal the truth of his experiments on the Geth, clearing her name but losing her loyalty. Both main scenarios have a great narrative payoff, and the additional “best scenarios” reward the player for building up their scores. This is truly great gameplay design which enhances the idea of player decision, and the idea of the characters reacting to your actions. I haven’t seen situations like this executed so flawlessly in any other game, and builds up this emotional attachment to the NPC characters that truly pays off in the suicide mission.
The first time I played the game, I lost various members of the crew by not immediately going to the collector base, as well as losing Samara, both situations heart-breaking because of the time and care I took to interact with them, as well as the fact that they were directly linked to my actions.
I replayed the last third of the game to access the DLC’s that I didn’t play the first time, and completed the suicide mission with no casualties, and while this is satisfying to pull off, it feels narratively lacking. I plan on subsequent runs to vary who lives and dies for a whole different feel to the ending; on one, I intend to survive it with the minimal amount of surviving squad-mates required, and another to lose about half. It may sound slightly sadistic, but I feel this mission deserves to have casualties for it to live up to its reputation. It is a darker game than the first, and I think that can really shine with this final mission (although the ability for a no-casualties ending is by all means a great inclusion to reward you for the care and attention put in over the dozens of hours played).
That being said, wanting to do it, and actually being able to make the choices that make these beloved characters die are two too entirely separate matters, and only time will tell if I will actually have the heart to do it. After all, seeing Kelly Chambers melt in front of you is hard enough to watch without you choosing it deliberately.
UP NEXT
As you probably guessed, Mass Effect 3 is next on queue. Be on the lookout for it.
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