Mass Effect 2: Just like old times
Richard Nieves, '13 | Staff reporter
Issue date: 2/12/10 Section: Lifestyle
Mass Effect was one of the best western role playing games on the Xbox 360 when it came out in 2007. Then Bioware released the PC version in 2008 and fixed a number of issues. Mass Effect 2 is a revamped experience. Everything that was wrong with Mass Effect has been tweaked and Bioware has created an adventure in the inner most depths of space, and it all starts with a bang.
Players will be taking the role of Commander Shepard once more to save the galaxy from an unknown force with powerful and deadly allies. The game will take place shortly after Mass Effect and then fast forward two years after an attack on Shepard's ship, the Normandy. Players who have finished Mass Effect can import their previous save files into Mass Effect 2 and use their original characters.
The team Shepard scrounges up in Mass Effect 2 has not only gotten smarter, but has more depth. They are ruthless, immensely powerful, and you will need to gain their trust throughout the game in order to finish your mission. Shepard will also run into a few old friends and learn their fates.
Mass Effect 2 is the third-person action role playing game that Bioware was trying to achieve with Mass Effect. Bioware has tweaked the controls to be more responsive and quick to fit that of a standard third-person shooter. Taking cover, switching from a pistol to a grenade launcher, killing a group of enemies, and vaulting to more cover is almost seamless and natural. You will be finally taking on more of a leadership role as Shepard as you command your party to certain positions for them to take your enemies out. Action has become more bloody and brutal as you lead your squad into bigger battles and more diverse enemies. The Drell, Batarians, and Collectors are just a few of the new races that will join the roster of species in the Mass Effect universe and the pile of enemies Shepard will be facing.
The way players explore the galaxy has been changed as well. Instead of just selecting a world and hoping there is something there to land on, players will ride their ship across the universe exploring and harvesting resources in order to upgrade the Normandy and your weapons. Gaining these resources involves scanning a planet and sending out probes to find points of interest for you, no more landing and exploring in the Mako.
The inventory system has been totally wiped clean. You don't pick up different variations of the same weapons. Instead, there is a small amount of weapons available in the game, but they are upgradable with a variety of tweaks and fixes to make them more deadly than the last.
The conversations have not so much changed, but advanced. They kept the speech wheel that made Mass Effect such a success and added an interruption feature that allows the conversations to end a little more quickly and add depth to an event.
Mass Effect 2 is a great sequel because it not only tells a story players can dive into, but because it realizes and fixes all the issues from the last installment. The combat is a vast improvement on what it had been. The characters are just as great as, or even greater than, the past ones. There is enough innovation, but still more room to grow in the third title of the growing franchise.
Players will be taking the role of Commander Shepard once more to save the galaxy from an unknown force with powerful and deadly allies. The game will take place shortly after Mass Effect and then fast forward two years after an attack on Shepard's ship, the Normandy. Players who have finished Mass Effect can import their previous save files into Mass Effect 2 and use their original characters.
The team Shepard scrounges up in Mass Effect 2 has not only gotten smarter, but has more depth. They are ruthless, immensely powerful, and you will need to gain their trust throughout the game in order to finish your mission. Shepard will also run into a few old friends and learn their fates.
Mass Effect 2 is the third-person action role playing game that Bioware was trying to achieve with Mass Effect. Bioware has tweaked the controls to be more responsive and quick to fit that of a standard third-person shooter. Taking cover, switching from a pistol to a grenade launcher, killing a group of enemies, and vaulting to more cover is almost seamless and natural. You will be finally taking on more of a leadership role as Shepard as you command your party to certain positions for them to take your enemies out. Action has become more bloody and brutal as you lead your squad into bigger battles and more diverse enemies. The Drell, Batarians, and Collectors are just a few of the new races that will join the roster of species in the Mass Effect universe and the pile of enemies Shepard will be facing.
The way players explore the galaxy has been changed as well. Instead of just selecting a world and hoping there is something there to land on, players will ride their ship across the universe exploring and harvesting resources in order to upgrade the Normandy and your weapons. Gaining these resources involves scanning a planet and sending out probes to find points of interest for you, no more landing and exploring in the Mako.
The inventory system has been totally wiped clean. You don't pick up different variations of the same weapons. Instead, there is a small amount of weapons available in the game, but they are upgradable with a variety of tweaks and fixes to make them more deadly than the last.
The conversations have not so much changed, but advanced. They kept the speech wheel that made Mass Effect such a success and added an interruption feature that allows the conversations to end a little more quickly and add depth to an event.
Mass Effect 2 is a great sequel because it not only tells a story players can dive into, but because it realizes and fixes all the issues from the last installment. The combat is a vast improvement on what it had been. The characters are just as great as, or even greater than, the past ones. There is enough innovation, but still more room to grow in the third title of the growing franchise.