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Genre: RPG Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: BioWare Players: 1

By Keith B (7th Feb 2010)

As the second of a trilogy, Mass Effect 2 has some work to do. It must continue the saga of Commander Shepard and allow players who have completed Mass Effect to move seamlessly into the second portion of the story, while also remaining open enough to allow the people that compete Mass Effect 2 to move into the third and final chapter on a path that has been shaped by the way they have played, possibly across three different games. This is no simple affair, it’s a mammoth task but one which has been deftly handled. With the combat redesigned, a streamlining of all the key elements and a sweeping sense of scale, playing through to the temporary conclusion is a genuinely immersive experience.

Why? Partly because it is, strangely enough, an actual RPG.

Role Playing Game
–noun
a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master.

While the term has become more attached to the idea of trawling through dungeons smiting the undead, the definition implies that you invest time in the characters and interact with the presented situations depending on what traits the characters at your disposal have. While the genre has developed over the years, inventory management has become more critical, with text or clunky, emotionless voice talent providing the mission that will see you charging into another cave or dungeon with your band of elves and mages.

You can’t help but to become involved in the main plot of Mass Effect 2, considering the amount of time players spend flicking around that radial menu to get though the dialogue that in turn opens up missions. You have to pay attention if you want to hit the new prompts midway through conversations that allow you to interrupt either with some great advice or by threatening to shoot someone, depending on if you hit the Paragon or Renegade option. By the time you realise how puerile you have been in trying to do a James T Kirk and pursue relationships with every member of the opposite sex on your crew, 25 hours have slipped by and you know everything about your crew, the various NPCs, and where everything across the four decks of the Normandy ship is located.



Of course, if you struggle with the notion of listening to hours and hours of dialogue, and possibly another set of hours and hours to do any history research through the Codex, then you’re going to struggle too with this. Unless you’re a big fan of Martin Sheen, because he features as the voice of the Illusive Man.

Without being too specific, Commander Shepard takes front and centre as a new threat to humanity arrives. Entire colonies on the edge of the known universe are disappearing, with no signs of a struggle and no clues as to where they’ve gone, or who has taken them. After completing a refresher course on your choices from the first game (should you import your character) and the controls, you learn that The Collectors, a race that exists on the far side of the Omega 4 relay, have been running sorties into known space to swipe colonists. Predictably, no ship has ever returned from the other side of the Omega 4 relay, so Shepard must travel around the galaxy to assemble a team that can investigate what’s unfolding.

The detail is fantastic everywhere you look, so after the opening scenes bedazzle with the smoothness of the visuals, you notice the biggest improvement is in the combat, transformed from clunky and unrewarding to solid and enjoyable. Handling the overheating of weapons has been altered, so now the player can eject a thermal clip at any time to reload, rather than waiting around for a temperature gauge to fall. A small but functional biotics and tech tree allow players to access powers through holding down one of the shoulder buttons, while the other shoulder handles the weapon wheel.



At first glance there doesn’t appear to be much variety in the conventional weapons, the magic-like biotics, or the tech tree. While this is ultimately true, any negative impressions are countered by the fact that they intertwine so well. Powers can be paired up, like levitating someone with Pull, then smacking them with Warp, resulting in a hefty explosion. Similarly, while you can carry one of each type of the five weapons, they never really change as you upgrade, relying on ammo variations that have superior effects against shields, or cryo or incendiary rounds to keep it interesting. There will be some argument that the lack of an inventory system, clunky as it may have been, is a crippling omission, but the end results are nowhere near as detrimental as you might think.

Gone too are the sorties to planet surfaces to zip around in the Mako buggy searching for vital resources. Rather than spending half an hour driving over a barren landscape for a few credits, the player now scans the planet surface from the Normandy vessel, in a minigame which becomes addictive the more you play. Orbiting the planet, you drag a circle across the surface, and through three different factors – controller vibration, an audible clicking, and an on-screen oscilloscope – decide where to launch a probe that will reclaim some of the four available resources. Two other minigames exist, a hacking and a bypass system, with the former interesting throughout but the latter becoming effortless, and therefore a chore, after the first few attempts.

Once you do land on a planet or space station, the work put into the game starts to show. The locations are well thought out and laden with character, often brilliantly presented, and although small things like the zero-G moment from the intro sequence are unfortunately never revisited, the surroundings are pretty close to what most of us would imagine stuff will look like in space in 2183. Facial expressions and body movement have all been improved, adding a cinematic touch to the many discussions Shepard has, and across the board the game often impresses with weather effects and lighting.



It has all the ingredients of a classic, and a classic it will be, certainly by the time the final chapter arrives. It invites multiple replays, through the belief that playing through it again, this time as the opposite alignment, will be an entirely new experience. It wasn’t, although I appreciate that I did start a new game with a new character as soon as I completed it, although having an emotional moment, I found it was too soon. I shall return to it someday though.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is like this: despite being the middle game in a series of three, it’s neither hamstrung nor aimless. As far back as Elite the idea of zipping around the stars in a video game, collecting resources and dealing with encounters has been around. It had me playing at 7am to continue the adventure, and nothing ever gets me playing games that early in the morning. The two halves– the rewarding combat and the massive role playing element – will provide something for everyone. If you’re a fan of both camps, then you really need to get this. People who played Dungeon and Dragons in the 90s will probably sprout massive beards at the excitement of it all.

The excitement is warranted. A wonderful, immersive tale that sets things up superbly for the finale, which, based on the evolution Mass Effect 2 has showed, should be magnificent.

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