Mass Effect 2 Review

26 Jan 2010 at 11:44:14 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (PC)

An anecdote to set the tone, I think. Last week, I brought Mass Effect 2 into the office, set up the 360, and had the illustrious Andy Alderson and the divine Bill Vaughan play through the opening twenty minutes, while studying their faces. The reactions were as I predicted: at one specific moment, both jaws slackened, all eyes widened, and a chorus of “Holy shit” filled the room.

I predicted those reactions because I reacted the exact same way when I played through those same opening minutes the weekend prior.

Whatever you say about Mass Effect 2, positive or negative – and there's certainly a lot to say – it's impossible to fault the cinematic scope. This is, without doubt, one of the most beautifully-crafted games I've ever seen. Every single conversation is a mini-cutscene, and every full-fledged cutscene is something that wouldn't look out of place in a cinema. Part of it's down to the absolutely top-notch voice acting, with Jennifer Hale's female Shepard taking my personal vote for Best Female Voice Acting In Years. Even the simplest conversational gambits - like trying to convince a salesman to give you a discount - are heightened by the believable voices, the subtly dismissive facial expressions, the fact that the party genuinely turns and walks away until called back by the beleaguered shop assistant. If I can wax lyrical about talking to a vendor, I'm pretty sure you can imagine what I'd like to write about some of the more dramatic cutscenes.

I'd like to write about them, but I won't, because half of the joy of Mass Effect 2 is in the surprise. I'm genuinely saddened by the leaks that have surrounded Mass Effect 2's launch, so do yourself a favour: until you pick it up for yourself, don't ruin it.

Mass Effect 2 picks up pretty much where the first left off. Without giving too much away, player character Fill-In-The-Unspoken-Christian-Name Shepard is off patrolling the outlying reaches of known space, hunting for Geth – the first game's robotic villains. As you'd expect, things quickly go horribly, horribly wrong, and Mass Effect 2 begins proper two years later, with Shepard on the hunt for a new team to help combat a new, more mysterious threat, which is abducting entire human colonies.

It's apparent from the off that this is a very different beast to the original Mass Effect. Barring the immediate cinematic presence – and if you've played the first, you know how impressive that was and you need to know that this makes Mass Effect 1 look like amateur hour - everything feels a whole lot tighter, most notably the combat. While the first game had a clunky cover system and a fairly basic shooting mechanic, Mass Effect 2 refuses to rest on those laurels. Some tweaks appear minor but have profound implications: the A button now locks Shepard to a piece of cover, as in just about every cover shooter worth mentioning, and there's location-based damage, meaning that headshots suddenly matter, so it's also useful that Shepard can actually shoot straight from the beginning of the game this time. Then again, on higher difficulties, it might be wiser to aim for the leg and cause encroaching hordes to stumble. If you combine that with Cryo Ammo, all the better. Of course, you could just use Adrenaline Rush to slow time, if your character has it.

Abilities are part of the other, more prominent tweaks. They're much more immediate than they once were, and feel a lot less limited. Cooldowns are a whole lot faster so there's less of a pause in between uses, and most last longer, with specialised ammunition being permanent. Rather than faffing around in the radial menu to find what you're looking for, you can map each ability to buttons. Switching to Disruptor Ammo? Tap RB. Suddenly need to Lift a foe? Maybe you'll have that bound to Y. Classes, too, have been changed up: Mass Effect's Biotic, Tech, Soldier, and associated cross-classes remain but each is now individual, with one ability unique to them. In the case of the Tech/Soldier hybrid class Infiltrator, for instance, it's a tactical cloak. Everyone also has basic expertise - you don't need a Tech along to attempt an unlock of any safes you find, nor do you need increasing levels of Electronics to decrypt harder ones.

These are all little details that can, at best, give you a vague feel for the changes made, which not only massively improve most aspects but also streamline the game considerably. This is both very, very good, and potentially very, very bad.

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