Mass Effect 2 Preview [360]

24 Aug 2009 at 17:28:23 by Tim McDonald

I've been itching to get my hands on Mass Effect 2 for awhile. Unlike some, I wasn't at all disillusioned with the original game – to me, it accomplished exactly what it set out to do. It was a sci-fi RPG in a brand new universe which incorporated elements of action and exploration along with the typically grandiose (and almost flawlessly executed) BioWare story.

In this, it succeeded. It's impossible to say it didn't have problems – coming after some rather top-notch shooters, the combat felt like it could've been done a bit better. The exploration felt a tad repetitive. The driving needed work. A sequel, then, has a lot to live up to, but a lot to improve on.

The ground work has been done, though. Mass Effect 2 is running on a tweaked version of the original engine, meaning that it feels similar, but has noticeable improvements. We'll talk specifics about the new gameplay upgrades shortly, but a bit of background first.

Last time I saw Mass Effect 2 was at a behind-closed-doors presentation at E3. The (unplayable) presentation there revealed things that we had in part suspected: Shepard was once again the playable character, but - unexpectedly - there was a very good chance that he could die towards the end of Mass Effect 2, and by that BioWare meant a full, proper ending in which Shepard is killed, as opposed to a simple death via combat or game over screen. Further spoiler-centric scenes revealed the death of a principal character, the destruction of a principal location, and one other section.

That section is going to be the focus of this hands-on, because it's all that was available for play. In Mass Effect 2, Shepard is on a “suicide mission” to determine why humans are disappearing all around the galaxy, and to this end he's forced into the dark underbelly of the galaxy. Shepard will be meeting, recruiting, and earning the trust of some of the most dangerous and feared characters in the game's universe, and at this particular point in the game he's tracking down an assassin.

The assassin, whom we've discussed before, is called Thane. He's a member of the new Drell race and his next target is a character from the first game: Nassana Dantius. In order to get to Thane, Shepard has to infiltrate Nassana's tower and get to her. The Asari knows that an assassin is after her, though, so security is high.

Which means a hell of a lot of shooting.

To be honest, this is ideal. Outside of the RPG mechanics – which were polished to a mirror sheen in the original game – the combat is where players spend most of their time in Mass Effect. While the section options with a conversation (inaudible in the noisy convention room, so it's a good thing it's one of the parts of the E3 videos) we then land on the tower and immediately find ourselves in combat.

First, and most noticeable, is something entirely unrelated to combat: there's no texture pop-in. A great many titles have been blighted by the game loading with bland surfaces before low-res textures appear, followed quickly by the high-res. Mass Effect was one such title, but even the mighty Halo 3 suffered occasionally. Mass Effect 2 suffers no such thing, presumably because it's the same engine and the team has had longer to fix the issues that there were. Slightly less noticeable – but no less important - was the fact that the loading times weren't as intrusive. They were still there, but generally with different animations to stare at than an elevator ride, and they were considerably shorter than in the original game.

And then there's the combat, which I've teased you with enough. Squad controls are updated and are ridiculously easy to use – no more are you forced to order both of your squad members to one location, as one's movement is now controlled with a left tap on the d-pad, while the other is controlled with the right. They can be rallied to follow you with a tap of down, or made to focus fire by tapping up. Simple.

Comment