(Alternate title after patch: Mass of Text 2: Revenge of the Paragraph)
Guess I have a lot of ground to cover if I want to meet my goal for this year (which was a very easily achievable 12 reviews), but whining about it will only take away from actually doing a review. On top of that, I can't let 'New Game +' newcomer Nick be the only person on my blog to have reviewed one of the best games of 2010; that would be just plain wrong of me, and do an incredible disservice to Bioware's latest creation. (Yes, I know that by the time of this writing the Dragon Age: Origins 'expansion' is already out. Thanks for reminding me how late I am with this...). Let's get this party started then, shall we?
Let's get the bad out of the way (don't worry, there's not much). Possibly the most different - and most aggravating, to many Mass Effect fans - is the change over to a more 'modern fps' style game. This means 2 things: ammo management and regenerating health. The first is mostly just a minor inconvenience, put in place most likely to prevent players from simply using one really powerful weapon and instead forcing them to use their entire available arsenal. While I like this idea in theory, as you definitely could do 80%+ of the first Mass Effect using the same weapon, the implementation just makes Mass Effect 2 feel slow and puts you into very, very tight spots when ammo becomes scarce. This is especially true of powerful, specialized guns (like the sniper rifle) which for some classes can only hold a handful of ammo at one time. This actually can cause the same problem they are attempting to solve - using a single weapon type most of the game - because you feel like you need to save that powerful weapon for a big fight that never happens (or does, then you run out of ammo and have to go back). I would much prefer that the weapons be given different, obvious strengths to encourage the player to use them in appropriate scenarios than attempts to force the player's hand in using different weapons due to scarcity of ammunition. It also goes against the 'lore' of the first game (though they attempt to explain this away as a tech 'improvement' in an attempt to actually include the change in the story of the world), which many find to be a bit lame. This is not a deal breaker by any means - it is inconvenient at best, and unnecessarily debilitating in only a select number of places - but is most certianly an unwelcome change from the first game. At least they were kind enough to have 'ammo' apply to most weapon types ('heavy weapons' excluded), which makes the system a bit easier to use across multiple classes.
Perhaps the more insulting change, however, is the move of the dreaded 'regenerating health'. The first Mass Effect was one of the few remaining shooters to stay with a static health pool - one that would only increase with use of a medi-gel, which were not exactly rare but also not pointlessly plentiful. Regenerating systems tend to encourage poor use of strategic cover, boring downtime waiting for your health to return, and significant difficulties with portions of the game where it is difficult to find cover but you desperately need to get your health back. This is perhaps the most jarring change from the first game, and takes some time getting used to for veterans (though veterans of most other first and third person shooters will be able to jump right in), and I believe causes the game to have extremely wild swings in difficulty from a player perspective. On one hand, easy difficulties and easy fights are made easier as you can simply ignore your health and overpower the enemy from a completely open area without fear of losing much health or wasting many resources, as they will just take a few seconds to recover. In higher difficulties and extremely difficult parts of the game, however, relentless enemies will hardly (if ever) give you much time behind cover without flanking which leaves you with no way to recover health whatsoever (medigels are now used for reviving allies and, as such, are made much more rare).
An interesting (but poorly executed) change made in Mass Effect 2 was the drastic change made to mining. In the first game, mining was nothing more than a side quest that had little to no reward aside from perhaps some experience and a bit of cash, which in the first game was pointless. In ME2, however, mining is practically a secondary economy that must be found by the player to perform research on upgrades for your ship, weapons, armors and powers. Unfortunately, mining ends up being implemented as a mind-numbingly tedious chore that is almost force upon you due to the incredible power afforded to you by the upgrades it provides. Players must take their ship to remote planets and 'scan' them for minerals (the same process is used for some side missions that involve beacons) and send probes to the surface to retrieve them. This takes time - in the form of moving from planet to planet, as well as meticulously moving up and down the planets surface at a snail's pace - as well as a monetary investment, as neither the probes nor the fuel are free. You can't even carry that many probes until you get a mid-to-late game upgrade for it, which makes the task before you that much more aggravating. It is easily Mass Effect 2's 'level grinding' equivalent and acts more as a 'hours completed' buffer than any sort of true gameplay enhancement. Which is unfortunate, because I really liked the idea - especially since it could be a 'reward' for spending the time to visit Bioware's vast and detailed universe - but instead feels more like a punishment. Bioware eventually patched the game to make the scanner quicker, and while this is a greatly appreciated improvement, as a whole the system still feels more like a time sink than anything else.
As a minor gripe, some of the decisions, especially near the end of the game, have unpredictable or unintended consequences. There is still something of a disconnect between the dialog 'choice' and what your character says or does, and occasionally NPC's reactions to your choices are strange and contrary to your intentions. It is possible this is on purpose - either to drive story or to shake things up again on players who are methodical or trying to play it 'safe' - but it makes it aggravating when you have the power to choose but not the power to determine what that choice will do. The 'choice' feels much less like a choice and much more like player driven RNG when your choices and consequences do not seem to follow a logical path.
There are also choices with regards to the story elements of the game that can drive players to near insanity. Specific story missions are forced onto the player after certain conditions are met, which are unknown to the player until you've already triggered it. This means that, sometimes, missions are unavoidable and you are unable to do things like upgrade powers, weapons, or your party. It can make story missions exceptionally difficult if you were otherwise unprepared, and this is extremely frustrating as a player as you can do absolutely nothing to anticipate this or to escape it. I understand this makes the story more believable - after all, your enemy is not going to wait for you to be ready to make their move or show you their hand in advance of playing it - but I feel that the restriction to player choice and preparation easily outweighs the players' feeling of urgency. Mass Effect's story is, for the most part, extremely non-linear, so why force the few linear plot points on the player so abruptly?
All the cons aside though, Mass Effect 2 is an otherwise shining example of how to do a sequel 'right'. Improve (or remove) the bad parts, focus on what did work well, and add new features to try and expand upon your proven idea. The story is still uniquely Bioware; that is to say, well delivered, extremely deep and detailed and almost completely driven by player choice. While the first game was equally a choice focused, many of those decisions do not play out until the second, delivering a completely unique story experience catered to your own choices made over 2 years ago (assuming, of course, you brought your character over). And your choices from *this* game have an even stronger affect on the world and characters, making it unlikely (if not impossible) to ever play the same game twice.
Speaking of characters, if you loved NPCs and character development from the first game, the second will absolutely blow you away. The amount of time you can spend talking and learning about your fellow shipmates is impressive, and the loyalty missions do a great job of fleshing out their story and driving that bond between player and the characters, new and old alike. The fact that your squad mates speak up and react to the world around them, as well as any conversation you take place in, makes them feel much more like they are a part of the team instead of just blindly following you until the next time you need to put a bullet into something. Old comrades (those who survived, anyway) all make important cameos if you look hard enough, but not all of them are willing to return to Shepard's side. The new faces are generally a welcome change of pace from the original game and really add to the diversity and character of the new team. New recruits like Mordin (perhaps my favorite addition to the roster) and Thane give the player new playable races to work with, while characters like Archangel and Legion give players genuine surprise in the way the universe has changed since ME1. The 'Cerebus' choices, unfortunately, are somewhat more bland and uninteresting by comparison, although Zaeed and Jack help to give humans their fair share of 'interesting character' representation (Zaeed's recollections of past wars are especially fun to listen to, though he otherwise lacks serious dialog).
Perhaps the best new character - both through mastery of writing as well as voice acting - is the enigmatic 'Illusive Man'. He's one of the best characters I've seen in some time, and reminds you of just how convincingly good voice actors can get at really selling the character as an actual person. The Illusive man is that perfect blend of 'good' and 'bad', mysterious yet obvious, smooth and calculating. It is difficult for the player to tell if he is really friend or foe, and many times I felt like I could trust him even though I was a Paragon (and, theoretically, against Cerberus). Martin Sheen gives him the perfect voice, lending a sense of credibility to a man who is otherwise a cold businessman at heart, helping to leave the player constantly wondering about the true intentions of their 'benefactor'. Making him the central player in the second game was absolutely the right call, and I cannot wait to see what happens with him in ME3.
The overhauled inventory system, despite my gripes at the beginning of the review, is a huge improvement over the first game. The number of available weapons per type is now much more limited, which makes choosing the 'best' one for a job much easier. Ammo power ups were moved to the 'skill wheel', making it much more convenient to switch mid battle, allowing you to actually want to use them to gain an advantage over your enemy instead of being too tedious to deal with. Weapon upgrades are also streamlined into the new 'research' system, applying to all weapons of that type so you don't have to constantly swap those in and out as well. Unfortunately that means there are significantly fewer choices and options available to the player for weapon customization - I'd definitely like to see more weapon options, and maybe some unique upgrade choices that prevent you from getting other things - but overall such a needed improvement that the game benefits much more from the streamline than it is hurt by it. This is especially true since the first system was so cumbersome and difficult to deal with that most players just ignored it entirely, and never used it to it's full capacity.
Another benefit to tossing the old inventory system? Money now actually means something! In ME1, you easily hit the cash cap without really trying, and even have tons of leftover spending money after purchasing all the big weapons and upgrades. This is not really very interesting to the player, who can get anything he want and can just 'outgear' much of the early-to-mid game by simply purchasing as much as is available to you. In contrast, money is much more controlled in ME2 and really causes you to think about your decisions and your upgrades, perhaps causing some frustration to people who want everything *now*, but really just another way to show that player choice does matter. Near the end of the game, with enough side quests and exploration, you can afford most (if not all, with DLC) of the upgrades... but by then, you really, really need them.
Two words on this next improvement: NO MAKO! Need I say more?
Another noticeable improvement - though not something most people will be interested in - is the available DLC. DLC for the first game was extremely mis-managed. The first pack did not come out until 4 months after release and was generally considered by most to be overpriced, especially considering the lack of new original content. The second suffered for much the same reasons - released 5 months after the first DLC, and viewed by most as overpriced for the 2-3 hours of repetitive gameplay that it provided. ME2, on the otherhand, has included several small, free* DLC packs that included a wide variety of content: new weapons, new missions, and even new playable characters for your roster. These were made available starting from day one, all the way up to 2 months after game release, helping to keep ME2 in the news and constantly give players new content to play with. Actual paid content started just shy of 3 months after release, adding in new characters, missions, and plot stories at various prices, most of which are considered 'fair', giving the game at least 1 new DLC per month since release. I have yet to play these, but I'm glad to see this kind of support model being adopted for high profile console games (the 'screw you, used game purchasers' is not appreciated, though).
Overall, Mass Effect 2 is a well polished, greatly improved addition to the main 'Mass Effect' series that continues to prove that Bioware's attention to detail, characters and story are almost completely unmatched in the industry today. It leaves the player wanting more (the semi-cliffhanger ending makes sure of that), but all good games feel like they end too soon. It really makes me wonder what they can possibly be able to do to make Mass Effect 3 feel as impressive, but I suppose if anyone could do it, it would be Bioware. This game comes highly recommended, with the normal stipulation of 'you better like text'.
*Only 'free' if you bought the game new, or purchased the 'Cerebus Network' download after purchasing the game new
