Mass Effect 2

Voices of: Mark Meer, Jennifer Hale, Ali Hillis, Brandon Keener, Steven Barr, Seth Green, Keith David, Kimberly Brooks, Martin Sheen, Lance Henriksen, Adam Lazarre-White, Carrie-Ann Moss, Ash Sroka, Yvonne Strahovski, Courtenay Taylor, Jim Cummings, Adam Baldwin, Michael Beattie, Maggie Baird, Tricia Helfer, Fred Tatasciore
Developer: BioWare
Directed by: Casey Hudson
Rating: M
Genre: Action role-playing
System: Xbox 360
2010

Times Completed:
Tim: 1

Summary: Commander Shepard reluctantly joins Cerberus, an extremist organization, to stop the Collectors from wiping out human colonies across the galaxy.

Review:
Tim: BioWare has truly created something special with their Mass Effect games. I loved the first game and I'm back again to sing the praises of the sequel. Mass Effect 2 improves on the original in several ways, while retaining the strengths from the original. I had a blast playing this game, and this franchise has now emerged as one of my all-time favorites in the video game world.

I truly loved the mechanic of your choices in the first game mattering in this one. The save file is transferred over, so this feels like less a separate sequel and more like a continuation in the narrative from the original. That's exceptionally rare in video games- it's usually a sense of starting from scratch, starting from a blank slate. Sure, your levels, power-ups, and weapons all reset, but it's explained fairly well through the story. The narrative is definitely one of the great strengths of this game. I was a bit surprised that this game didn't just carry your original team over. I think it was actually a brilliant move. You can recruit several members of your original team (thank goodness Garrus is one of them), but much of the game is spent building out a new team. The many new recruits give this game a totally different flavor. You get to know their personalities and their various loyalty missions takes Shepherd around the galaxy and gives the game a chance to do additional worldbuilding. The story is fantastic and I loved immersing myself into the galaxy created in these games.

Jack Shepherd continues to be such a terrific character. I kept the paragon path going from the original game, so he was a bit of a boy scout here. But, you get to reconnect with Garrus and Tali'Zorah. Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor were both great Cerberus additions to the team. Grunt and Jack weren't my favorites, but it was interesting to learn about their backstories. Kasumi Goto was great- I ended up using her quite a bit. My key trio was Shepherd, Garrus, and Kasumi. Mordin Solus was an incredibly interesting and complex character. I didn't like Samara much. I recruited Zaheed so late that I didn't really get to know him much. I loved Thane and I wish I could have learned more about his past. Legion was excellent- that was definitely one of the better missions in the game. It was nice you got to see Liara and the other team members from the first game, but I wish they had slightly bigger roles in this one. I was a huge fan of Kelly Chambers and was a bit bummed at how my choices in the game influenced her storyline during the suicide mission.

I love that these games leverage more famous actors for some of the voice work. I was glad that Seth Green got a bigger role for Joker in this game. He's a fantastic character and Green is incredible bringing him to life, so I was so happy for his enlarged part. I was pleasantly surprised to recognize Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man. His voice is so distinct and he was wonderful in the role. I always love hearing Carrie-Ann Moss. Yvonne Strahovski did a tremendous job voicing Miranda Lawson. I was so impressed with her job bringing that complex character to life. Keith David has a smaller role, but it's always wonderful to hear him. The voice cast in this game is excellent.

This game retains much of what made the first game so excellent. It did, however, make some changes. The one that felt most notable to me was the lack of the vehicle, driving around planet after planet. While I had fun doing that in the original, it also emerged as one of the most frustrating, time consuming aspects of the game. I didn't quite realize while playing it how much time I wasted trying to take out missile launchers that wrecked my vehicle. This game mostly does away with that mechanic and it's a brilliant quality of life improvement. I didn't really miss it at all. I liked the mechanic of firing probes at planets for resources, but it eventually took way too long. I wasn't sure if I needed a ton of resources for the end of the game, so I spent many hours collecting resources that ended up going unused. I explored 100% of the planets in the game and mined for resources thoroughly. I could have easily saved 2 hours had I known it was overkill. There's so many planets in this game and firing probes started out fun, but soon became a major chore.

Once again, I loved the approach to Missions and Assignments. I completed all the missions and all 56 Assignments, including the DLC packs Normandy Crash Site (such a cool one), Project Firewalker, Overlord, and Arrival. I got Shepherd to Level 30, full Paragon. The leveling up part of this game felt downplayed. I completed the missions but never felt a need to grind or level up the character. That's probably a good thing.

I loved Mass Effect 2. The story was excellent. It was a total blast playing for 45 hours. I loved how the stories from the original game were extended. The conclusion was so intense- the Suicide Mission was a great final level. I thought the final boss was a bit easy- I beat it without much difficulty on the first try. I'm not complaining! It would have been frustrating to redo it eighteen times. However, the final boss of the first game felt more challenging. This one definitely gets the nod for cinematic quality, though. In conclusion, this is a fantastic game, a more than worthy sequel. This franchise is undoubtedly one of the best.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Mass Effect, Star Fox, Bioshock, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Borderlands