PC
PlayStation 3
XBox 360
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Product Features

Genre
Other
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Release Date
January 21, 2011
Available Platforms
PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 3, XBox 360, XBox 360

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Mass Effect 2

Step into the shoes of heroic Commander Sheppard in Mass Effect 2, an action role-playing game from BioWare. There is a new enemy threatening the galaxy and with humans disappearing everywhere, it's your mission to stop it, at any cost!

Playing as Sheppard you must prepare and assemble an elite squad to face a dangerous space mission on the mightiest ship ever built. It may seem to others like suicide, but with the help of his team, Sheppard intends to tackle the challenge head-on and prove them wrong.

  • Charlie bates March 02, 2010 360
    ****

    Let me begin by saying that this game is truly an epic. The sheer scope and the quality of the design is truly astounding. First off, the graphics. Graphically, I cannot think of any game that stands up to this one. When considering that these graphics hold up throughout an entire galaxy is what makes them so great. The amount of detail that BioWare put into to a game of this scale simply blows my mind.

    Mass Effect 1 was all about the story and character development and this second instalment does not fall short in the slightest. Having not completely played through ME 1 I was a little confused at the offset of the game, but if you so desire you can enquire about the events that unfolded in the first game, which was sufficient. After figuring out the story I was truly captivated by it. When not playing I found myself thinking about what I would do next and so on. In my mind, a game that draws you into the on this level means that it has a great story. The stellar story is complimented by superb character development. You will actually care about the choices you make (regarding the main characters)and the things you say to them.

    Simply put, the gameplay of the original did not meet my standards and that of Mass Effect 2 has greatly improved on that front. BioWare took the Gears of War style shooting. The cover system has been also improved, although not as well as I would have liked. My problem specifically came when changing weapons. Often times when I would change weapons in cover I would find my character standing up out of cover, resulting in some cheap deaths. This, although an annoyance, did not ruin my experience in the slightest; I was still able to enjoy blasting the Collectors into oblivion. One gameplay issue that I had was the mining minigame. At first I enjoyed scanning the planets in the search for essential element, but as the game goes on it begins to become quite tedious, especially since the elements are required if you want to enjoy the game to its fullest.

    This game runs very smoothly with a few minor hiccups. I found that if you skip the conversation sequences the game will fall behind and will have to load during gameplay. The actual loading screens are some of the longest and I would suggest downloading the game to your hard drive to avoid these.

    A disappointment for me was this game's main quest length. I beat the game in a little over 22 hours expecting it to last around 40. However, the multiple class types and the different decisions give the game very high re-playability. I also had a problem with the side quests of the game. Granting you only with 125 or 40 XP, the side quests simply aren't worth your time. In the traditional sense I would not consider this game a RPG, merely a 3rd person shooter with RPG elements. BioWare decided to exclude any form of inventory. Diehard RPG fans may be turned off by this, yet I embraced this approach.

    The music and score for this game are not memorable to say the least. The music kicks in at random bits of action and ramps up the intensity slightly, but it is simply not memorable and seems to lack emotion. However, the voice acting is superb and for good reason, with the star studded cast that it has.

    In conclusion, Mass Effect 2 is a must buy for any gamer. The sheer quantity of content that is available with purchase is truly astounding and considering that the Cerberus Network provides free DLC with purchase of the game only increases the scope. So go out buy this game and just play through it. It is one of those games that cannot be passed up.