Mass Effect 2
- Format: PlayStation 3 (also available on PC, Xbox 360)
- Genre: RPG/Action
- Developer/Publisher: Bioware/EA
- Release Date: January 21, 2011
The best modern role-playing games aren’t about collecting loot or garnering experience points. Instead they are exercises in world-building, narrative and characterisation. There are still old-school PC stalwarts, but games like Mass Effect embody the true meaning of the term role-playing: you become a character and choose their paths in life.
So while a certain kind of gamer will decry Mass Effect 2 for controlling more like an action game than a traditional RPG, even more so than its 2007 predecessor, in truth there is more actual role-playing in it than almost any other game.
Mass Effect 2 returns to the story of Commander Shepard, the first human to be inducted into the Spectres, an elite group of special agents endowed with unquestionable authority in their quest to protect the galaxy.
It manages to be open-ended and free without being undirected or overloaded with choice and has one of the most well-written, intricate and massive worlds of any game.
The first game told of Shepard’s fight against the evil Saren, an alien hell-bent on human destruction and the return of a race of all-powerful sentient machines called the Reapers.
It wasn’t available on the PS3, but this back-story is told and the important decisions from the first game are made through an interactive comic-book sequence. It’s an elegant way of combating an unfortunate problem as the events of Mass Effect can have great consequences on the sequel and form an important context to the story.
Unlike most games, in which the story is a forgettable aside, here it runs through the core of the action. Everything you do and every choice you make as you freely traverse the vast world has an impact on the outcome of the game.
The main plot – there are multiple side stories and quests too – involves Shepard assembling a crew to take on the Collectors, an alien race that periodically kidnaps thousands of humans before disappearing without a trace.
Each crew member is added to your squad once you aid them in their own personal quests. The resulting cast is quite a diverse bunch: strong female figure Miranda, quirky alien doctor Morden, gigantic, brute-like Grunt; each archetype is present but the characters never slip into stereotype and each have a fleshed-out back story and believable personalities.
The bulk of the gameplay involves navigating across the galaxy to complete missions towards your ultimate goal of stopping the collectors – a mixture of finding crew members, gaining their loyalty and completing major story events littered throughout the game.
Once you’re on a mission, or even simply exploring an uncharted world, there are generally two main mechanics – conversation and combat. Talking to the myriad of human and alien characters across the world uses the same system as the first game; a cinematic, genre-defining method of choosing responses, questions and interruptions without breaking the flow of conversation or choosing from an overly long list. It gives you a control over your character’s personality and attitude simply not present in other games and your Shepard character can therefore be tailored to exactly how you want him or her to be.
Combat is a massive improvement over the first game, which was an uncomfortable mix of clunky third-person shooter control and legacy role-playing ideas. It was the most frustrating aspect of the all game, and one of the things you spent most of your time doing.
Here it’s much more refined, incorporating current trends such as cover and a much-more accurate and satisfying aiming system. It’s more along the lines of Gears of War, although not quite as precise, and opens up a lot of options on the battlefield with the easy command of your two AI partners as well.
The big differentiator between Mass Effect and other titles, be they shooters or role-playing games, is that you truly feel like you’re part of the world. The experience of exploring the Coruscant-esque streets of Ilium or landing on a world which you’ve scanned and found something of interest is simply unparalleled. It manages to be open-ended and free without being undirected or overloaded with choice and has one of the most well-written, intricate and massive worlds of any game.
Mass Effect 2 is an excellent game, improving an all the first game’s flaws whilst expanding its rich universe and storyline into one of the best games in years. Even without the first game for context, the PS3 version is sublime, upgrading the Xbox 360 version’s engine and running just as impressively overall. Plus, the bonus inclusion of the game’s original downloadable content adds even more to the experience.
It’s sheer gaming class.
Verdict: 10/10
Female First Michael Moran