Not being one with a lot of love for shooters of any kind, I was hesitant to play Mass Effect 2. Even more so on account of my not playing the original Mass effect. I have to say, though, this game made me seclude myself away in my room for about two weeks... all the way to the point that my girlfriend started a new game just in order to spend time with me. Depressing? Yes. Enthralling? Obviously. Did I enjoy my time playing through it to the point where I would play it again? Oh, Yea.
Mass Effect 2 is a third person shooter RPG. That's the best way I can describe it's genre-twisting play style. You gain levels by completing missions and earning experience, and you can make "humanity favoring" choices, for which you receive Renegade (evil) points, or I guess "equality" choices, for which you receive Paragon (good) points. You can also choose from a variety of classes, ranging from brawler, infiltrator (sniper), biotic, or engineer. There are a couple others, but I played through as sniper and then took over my girlfriend's engineer character, so I can't remember all of them or really comment on them. What I can say, is that playing as the sniping infiltrator could have been more fun and that if I were to play through it yet again, biotic (a kind of magic wielder, focusing on special abilities more than weapons) would have to be my choice. As for infiltrator and engineer, they both have many fine qualities that allow the player to stay back and let others do the fighting. I usually like to throw myself into the mess, so these were both a little unusual for me, but nowhere near difficult to get the hang of.
The hardest thing for me to catch on to was what was going on with the plot. This series is so heavily story based that I didn't know what was going on in the beginning of the game and I didn't know who I was supposed to be rooting for. I at first tried to take the stance, "I'm on my own, suck it, everyone else!" But that, for some odd reason, sometimes gave me Paragon points when all I wanted was to be the evil bastard I love being (there will never be a game where going down the righteous path will be more fun than the cruel, heartless, greedy bastard who can do anything he wants). Of course, my straying from the straight path of evil cost me a couple actions that I didn't have enough Renegade points for later in the game, about which I was considerably disappointed. So the second iteration of the game loses some accessibility for those who haven't played the first. Other than that, things come together very nicely.
You play as Commander Shepard (male or female), but you also die in the first five minutes. Cerberus and their leader, the Illusive Man, bring you back to life. Throughout the rest of the game you go on missions for Cerberus: acquiring a team, investigating disappearances, rescuing colonists, killing bad guys. All this, and for some reason Cerberus is still the bad guy. I don't know what they did in the first game, but it must have been bad enough to counteract everything good they do in this one (Reviving the main character, for starters). Even after Miranda, a possible love (or sex) interest and the biggest proponent of Cerberus, makes a solid case for the work they do, siding with Cerberus puts you on the wrong side of the law. Going through the game mission by mission will rush you through it but you'll lose a lot of the extra effects, things of the sort that are provided in most RPGs. Like mining, for instance. There are so many planets in so many solar systems, many of which you don't ever need to go, that it feels overwhelming. The main point to going to any of these extra planets is to find minerals, for which you have to slowly scan the entire planet and shoot probes to, hopefully, collect enough for that next weapon upgrade. I spent a large amount of my time mining because I wanted things that I thought were totally unnecessary (ship upgrades), just because I wanted them and I had excess resources for a little while. I never upgraded any weapon that I did not personally use and this worked out superbly. The team helps, but as an infiltrator, most of the enemies are taken down with one quick shot to the head, so I didn't allow my team to reach their full potential. I did, however, collect everyone I could and made them all loyal to me, which unlocks a special ability for that team member (and something more after the game's completed). And a new outfit. Spiffy.
Most of the missions don't take too long, but there are a lot of them, which keep the game going for a good amount of time. It took me about 28 hours to get through the whole thing, which I think is a perfect amount of time for an RPG. Mass Effect 2 doesn't delve into the excessive time-wasters like so many Final Fantasies. Hell, you don't even need to spend as much time doing the things I did. This game could probably be beaten in 10 to 15 hours in a speed run, which is still a good amount of time. Any game that goes less than ten hours is kinda pushing it. More importantly is that the game stands without the extra missions or grinding-ish mining. Some games tend to rely more on what should be bonus material and fail with the main storyline (Fable II comes to mind).
There are a total of 9 characters to collect to help in the main mission and you can learn about their personal lives or lure a couple into having sex with you, if you're so inclined. This adds a certain amount of depth to the world and, sometimes, makes you actually care what happens to your team. Especially on the loyalty missions do you get a special, inside look at your team members. Now that I think about it, that's really the best thing about them. I think they helped a few times, but I was never in need of their help and I always seemed to have full health packs. They do provide a good source of extra story and many of the missions revolve around your team (at least 2 for each member). And many of them can be seen as a badass accessory for Commander Shepard.
For the most part, this game plays well and almost always has an interesting story. All the choices effect the outcome of Shepard, the ones close to him/her, or even the storyline of Mass Effect 3 if you import the character. Overall, this game was a lot of fun to play, with more than enough things to prolong the experience, and contained both great visuals and excellent storyline choices. The voice acting, I feel I should at least mention, was also great. Never did I cringe at an expression of worry or remorse - I did laugh a few times at some of Jack's rebellious, almost silly and mundane, spouting attitude of "I'm a killer, I don't care about anything". Still, the game was solid every time I picked up the controller. For that, I can overlook a few of the hours I spent mining and the overwhelming feel of the universe.
4/5 Near Perfect Score! Super Good!
