The "Retro Game Reviews" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
The game starts with Commander Shephard on the Normandy, however don't expect to get too comfortable with that familiar looking ship and crew, as before you know it your ship is under attack from a mysterious and intimidating looking space craft and moments later you see Commander Shephard being plummeted deep into space... dead. Yes, this is the opening scene for Mass Effect 2 but don't despair! Two years later you are up and about again, thanks to operation Lazarus and the organization Cerberus.
If you played Mass Effect 1 then you can important your character from your original game into Mass Effect 2, a rather cool feature which also means certain things happen in Mass Effect 2 based on decisions you made in the first game. If you haven't played Mass Effect 1 then why not?! Although not essential, I would say to play that game first as it's a huge storyline which I can't imagine playing the second game without knowing.
Back into the new game you have a brand new Normandy ship and crew to command, and sadly, the crew from the first one are no longer yours. Instead you now have to make a new crew, recruiting people from some dossiers given to you which see you exploring far ends of the galaxy to persuade people to join your team. You need to mix in with all of the alien races, nothing new as this was covered in the first one, but I felt this time around you get to know each of the races a bit more in-depth, in this game you even get to go to each races main 'city' if you'd like to call it that. I found these really fun to explore, but the main human base, the glorious Citadel which features so much in the first game, is smaller somewhat, and there's not as many places you are allowed to explore. This was disappointing for me, but hopefully this is something which could be coming back in Mass Effect 3.
There have been some big improvements from the first game. The combat has been revamped making it appeal more to fans of shooter games, but also making it a smoother process. It's easier to distinguish now when to use one of the various powers from the combat wheel, and just what enemy has a shield and which has a barrier, by it handily placing the word 'Shield' onto the enemies health bar. However I was greatly disappointed by the RPG elements that have been taken away from combat. In Mass Effect 1 you could spend ages tweaking yours and your team mate's guns, there were many to collect from all over the galaxy and you could choose different types of ammo and variations of a particular shotgun. This has all been completely taken away in the second game and instead you simply get what you're given. There's no more need to watch for your gun over heating anymore either, in the new game when your gun heats up it ejects a thermal clip onto the floor. You need to keep an eye out for these thermal clips throughout the game and walking over them automatically picks them up. While this does gear the game towards the shooter market, it did take away the annoyance of hiding behind cover, waiting for your gun to cool down, whilst your team mates are shot down around you.
As with the weapons, the armour is no longer as customisable as the first. In fact there are very limited options and whilst you can tweak very slightly, this is nothing compared to the vast combinations available in the first game. I'm annoyed at how I can't customise anything belonging to my team mates either, and the game simply decides what armour they have. I loved going around finding armour for me and my team mates in the first game, and you now have no real control over it in the second game. Again it seems they really have taken a lot of the RPG elements away from this game, to make it appeal to the wider market.
On board the Normandy you have access to the galaxy map, which lets you control just where you are taking your ship around the galaxy. There are tons of galaxies to explore and whilst you can spend a while looking at planets, there are only so many you can land on. You now have to scan planets for important resources such as Platinum and Element Zero. Once you have these, you can access upgrades for your weapons and ship at the click of a button. Scanning planets for resources does get rather tedious after a while, and doing it is rather essential as you need to be upgraded to complete the final mission of the game, however it's safe to say I don't miss travelling around in that rather annoying Miko from the first game!
There are assignments you can pick up along the way, to go with the main missions, although there aren't as many as the first game. Instead the main storyline feels much longer this time than in the first game, where it was rather short. The levelling system for your characters is still here in this game, however you can only gain XP points from doing missions, rather than by how many enemies you are killing. Once you have gained a level, you can allocate points into certain abilities. Again this has been dumbed down a lot from the first game, you now only have 4-5 abilities to choose from compared to about 10-12 from the first game.
I really took my time playing Mass Effect 2. I explored each nook and cranny and really got my money's worth from this game. The graphics are a huge improvement from the first game, it truly is visually stunning, and they've even improved the music and soundtrack, meaning strange music isn't playing at rather odd moments in the game. I was hooked on the game and really enjoyed playing it. My only grumble is that I am a huge RPG fan, and I understand the RPG market isn't as big as the shooter market, but I am still disappointment by how they've simplified many of the RPG elements, or in some cases done away with completely, and instead made this geared more towards a shooter game. My hope is some of these elements will come back with Mass Effect 3, but I guess for now that is just a case of wait and see.
Mass Effect 2 can be found for around £30-40; often Amazon is the cheapest place to buy the game. I should point out if you buy the game brand new; you receive a code inside for the 'Cerberus Network' which means straight away you can download some add-ons. If you don't buy the game brand new then the Cerberus Network costs 1200 points from the Xbox Marketplace. One of the side missions you can get will appeal to anyone who has played the first game, as it involves visiting the Normandy crash site, a rather emotional experience for Commander Shephard.
In the meantime this game really does appeal to fans of sci-fi, RPG and shooter games, and I do think it's got a bit of something in there for everyone. Mass Effect 2was just as exciting as I anticipated and there are lots of shocks in store for the player.
Also posted by me on www.dooyoo.co.uk and www.ciao.co.uk.
> In that case welcome to the forums. I see moderator Chris has
> already mentioned the dubious and suspicious nature we have here
> :D It's my fault really, I have to keep him on his toes.
And don't I know it! ;)
Fingers crossed you will win with this review! Good luck!
Anywho, a decent review. When it comes to Thursday, who knows. Might even be good enough for a free game.
As a side note, I din't like Mass Effect. I didn't give it too much time in fairness, because I'd just got hold of Blue Dragon.
The game starts with Commander Shephard on the Normandy, however don't expect to get too comfortable with that familiar looking ship and crew, as before you know it your ship is under attack from a mysterious and intimidating looking space craft and moments later you see Commander Shephard being plummeted deep into space... dead. Yes, this is the opening scene for Mass Effect 2 but don't despair! Two years later you are up and about again, thanks to operation Lazarus and the organization Cerberus.
If you played Mass Effect 1 then you can important your character from your original game into Mass Effect 2, a rather cool feature which also means certain things happen in Mass Effect 2 based on decisions you made in the first game. If you haven't played Mass Effect 1 then why not?! Although not essential, I would say to play that game first as it's a huge storyline which I can't imagine playing the second game without knowing.
Back into the new game you have a brand new Normandy ship and crew to command, and sadly, the crew from the first one are no longer yours. Instead you now have to make a new crew, recruiting people from some dossiers given to you which see you exploring far ends of the galaxy to persuade people to join your team. You need to mix in with all of the alien races, nothing new as this was covered in the first one, but I felt this time around you get to know each of the races a bit more in-depth, in this game you even get to go to each races main 'city' if you'd like to call it that. I found these really fun to explore, but the main human base, the glorious Citadel which features so much in the first game, is smaller somewhat, and there's not as many places you are allowed to explore. This was disappointing for me, but hopefully this is something which could be coming back in Mass Effect 3.
There have been some big improvements from the first game. The combat has been revamped making it appeal more to fans of shooter games, but also making it a smoother process. It's easier to distinguish now when to use one of the various powers from the combat wheel, and just what enemy has a shield and which has a barrier, by it handily placing the word 'Shield' onto the enemies health bar. However I was greatly disappointed by the RPG elements that have been taken away from combat. In Mass Effect 1 you could spend ages tweaking yours and your team mate's guns, there were many to collect from all over the galaxy and you could choose different types of ammo and variations of a particular shotgun. This has all been completely taken away in the second game and instead you simply get what you're given. There's no more need to watch for your gun over heating anymore either, in the new game when your gun heats up it ejects a thermal clip onto the floor. You need to keep an eye out for these thermal clips throughout the game and walking over them automatically picks them up. While this does gear the game towards the shooter market, it did take away the annoyance of hiding behind cover, waiting for your gun to cool down, whilst your team mates are shot down around you.
As with the weapons, the armour is no longer as customisable as the first. In fact there are very limited options and whilst you can tweak very slightly, this is nothing compared to the vast combinations available in the first game. I'm annoyed at how I can't customise anything belonging to my team mates either, and the game simply decides what armour they have. I loved going around finding armour for me and my team mates in the first game, and you now have no real control over it in the second game. Again it seems they really have taken a lot of the RPG elements away from this game, to make it appeal to the wider market.
On board the Normandy you have access to the galaxy map, which lets you control just where you are taking your ship around the galaxy. There are tons of galaxies to explore and whilst you can spend a while looking at planets, there are only so many you can land on. You now have to scan planets for important resources such as Platinum and Element Zero. Once you have these, you can access upgrades for your weapons and ship at the click of a button. Scanning planets for resources does get rather tedious after a while, and doing it is rather essential as you need to be upgraded to complete the final mission of the game, however it's safe to say I don't miss travelling around in that rather annoying Miko from the first game!
There are assignments you can pick up along the way, to go with the main missions, although there aren't as many as the first game. Instead the main storyline feels much longer this time than in the first game, where it was rather short. The levelling system for your characters is still here in this game, however you can only gain XP points from doing missions, rather than by how many enemies you are killing. Once you have gained a level, you can allocate points into certain abilities. Again this has been dumbed down a lot from the first game, you now only have 4-5 abilities to choose from compared to about 10-12 from the first game.
I really took my time playing Mass Effect 2. I explored each nook and cranny and really got my money's worth from this game. The graphics are a huge improvement from the first game, it truly is visually stunning, and they've even improved the music and soundtrack, meaning strange music isn't playing at rather odd moments in the game. I was hooked on the game and really enjoyed playing it. My only grumble is that I am a huge RPG fan, and I understand the RPG market isn't as big as the shooter market, but I am still disappointment by how they've simplified many of the RPG elements, or in some cases done away with completely, and instead made this geared more towards a shooter game. My hope is some of these elements will come back with Mass Effect 3, but I guess for now that is just a case of wait and see.
Mass Effect 2 can be found for around £30-40; often Amazon is the cheapest place to buy the game. I should point out if you buy the game brand new; you receive a code inside for the 'Cerberus Network' which means straight away you can download some add-ons. If you don't buy the game brand new then the Cerberus Network costs 1200 points from the Xbox Marketplace. One of the side missions you can get will appeal to anyone who has played the first game, as it involves visiting the Normandy crash site, a rather emotional experience for Commander Shephard.
In the meantime this game really does appeal to fans of sci-fi, RPG and shooter games, and I do think it's got a bit of something in there for everyone. Mass Effect 2was just as exciting as I anticipated and there are lots of shocks in store for the player.
Also posted by me on www.dooyoo.co.uk and www.ciao.co.uk.