Now "Mass Effect 2" Has been out for around 5 months now, I've played it through about 4 times and this is one of my most favourite games and i have a huge love for this trilogy.
"Mass Effect 2" is the sequel to 2007's smash hit "Mass Effect" it sees the player take control of Commander Shepard, and takes place 2 years after the events of "Mass Effect".
You follow the story of human colonies disappearing and there is no evidence of anything, accept for the fact that thousands of humans have disappeared.
Commander Shepard is no longer working for the alliance or the council, as at the beginning of the game your ship the " SSV NORMANDY SR1" is attacked by an unknown enemy and in your attempt to save as many of the crew as possible, you sacrifice yourself and drift off into the empty void of space.
A giant corporation group known as "Cerberus" retrieve your remains, that there are very little, and spend Billions of Dollars in rebuilding you with your DNA but it has to be more than just a clone, they spend even more on rebuilding you to the very point in you life where you died, everything has to be the same, so effectively you've been in a very deep sleep.
This certain project has been funded by someone called "The Illusive Man" because he wants to find out who or what has been attacking human colonies, and he feels only Commander Shepard is the one to lead a team of highly skilled human and alien races on what they will all call the suicide mission.
"Mass Effect 2" runs on "Epic Games Studios" "Unreal 3.5" engine, previously seen in 2008's game of the year "Gears Of War 2" a very good looking engine, and what makes the engine better in "Mass Effect 2" compared to "Gears Of War 2" is the use of colour, where was " Gears Of War 2" has very much a gray scale overlay to the game, we can see the full potential in "Mass Effect 2" with vibrant colours used in the armor and the multiple Alien Characters skin texture.
Now with the use of the new in-game engine, there is a downside which is loading screens, they are often and long, installing the game to your Hard Drive does decrease the loading time, but its still a good 15-20 seconds depending of the size of the area it has to load.
With the introduction of loading screens we loose the elevators, "Mass Effect" was criticised for the length in which you would sit in an elevator as it took you to the next place the elevators were used to hide the loading of the next area, there are good and bad points about this, the good points are in fact that we don't have to sit and watch an elevator travel slower than a snail, the bad points to this are that it takes you out of the game, games that have one continuous story line and don't have levels i feel shouldn't remove you from the game world "Gears of war 2" did a good job of this by not showing loading screens, the levels would load behind a cut scene and therefore you were always in the game. "Metal Gear Solid 4" had an intense loading screen of around 5-6 minutes, but then that was that, for the in tire level, levels lasting 3-4 hours a piece.
This isn't a major flaw within the game, its just my personal opinion, many may like the loading screens and as with all games today, it gives you hints at the bottom of the screen.
The voice acting is world class in this game, with voice casts from " A List " celebrity's such as Martin Sheen (The Departed/Catch me if you can) Seth Green (Austin Powers/Rat Race) Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) and Adam Baldwin (Serenity/Independence Day/The Patriot).
The Soundtrack Composed by Jack Wall is a intense dark soundtrack with a full orchestral band, classic tracks such as "Suicide Mission" really create a atmosphere of bravery and heroism, that I've been unable to find in any other games soundtrack.
Its a soundtrack that really puts that extra emotion within the game universe, and puts that addition weight on the player, as this particular track is played towards the end of the game, it really makes you the player think that every decision that you've made throughout the game, will now help you in your attempt of a successful mission.
The game play for " Mass Effect 2" is mixed, at heart it's a third person shooter, with the choice of different classes it really makes the game more varied, Solider class, is very much a shooter and using the cover to your advantage, flanking the enemy and using your full arsenal of weapons to take down the enemy ahead of you.
Other classes let you play the game more differently, different classes let you use "Biotic" powers you outwit your enemy's, "Slam" uses a physical power to raise the selected enemy into the high Sky's and send him hurling towards the ground the 3 time the speed of light, crushing their body's, other let you become invisible, and sneak up on the enemy from behind, each class lets you play the game to your choice, you can be sneaky and stealthy, or go in all guns blazing, it is really up to you.
The Artificial intelligence is your standard expectations, the enemy will try and outsmart you by flanking you, but in most cases, they'll just run towards you spraying bullets in your general direction, almost as if the AI is expecting you to just gun him down. i was disappointed in the fact that the enemy AI don't use more of their ability's or powers against you, the enemy biotic's don't try and use "Slam" on you, they'll use "Push" which just makes you fall over, but within 5 seconds your up again.
Unfortunately the same can't be said for you friendly AI, often they'll not listen to your orders and just stand behind cover and do nothing, other times they'll shoot like crazy, but wont take cover when taking hits, and they'll just be gunned down, and more often than not they'll just get in the way, but that's not to say their bad, you've just got to make sure that they go into position and then pretty much just leave them there, to take the grunt of the attack while you fight your way into their flanking position, or do what i do, and use you friendly AI's ability's to expose the enemy and shoot them down.
The Message inside "Mass Effect2" really is a universal one.
It takes the idea of unifying under one banner global peace in a fight against a bigger threat.
Recruiting your team of mixed Alien races all with bad history against one another, to come together and fight an elite Alien race with a hunger for destruction, putting the past behind them to an even bigger cause.
this is almost the same idea, with today's global problems, Global Warming, Economic Instability, toady's world says we'll help you do this, if you help us do this, when really they should all unite together to fight the bigger picture, and do so together.
Verdict
Graphics 10/10
Audio 10/10
Soundtrack 10/10
Game play 9/10
AI 7/10
Story 10/10
Total = 89.6% (A*) Outstanding
masseffect.bioware.com
"Mass Effect 2" is the sequel to 2007's smash hit "Mass Effect" it sees the player take control of Commander Shepard, and takes place 2 years after the events of "Mass Effect".
You follow the story of human colonies disappearing and there is no evidence of anything, accept for the fact that thousands of humans have disappeared.
Commander Shepard is no longer working for the alliance or the council, as at the beginning of the game your ship the " SSV NORMANDY SR1" is attacked by an unknown enemy and in your attempt to save as many of the crew as possible, you sacrifice yourself and drift off into the empty void of space.
A giant corporation group known as "Cerberus" retrieve your remains, that there are very little, and spend Billions of Dollars in rebuilding you with your DNA but it has to be more than just a clone, they spend even more on rebuilding you to the very point in you life where you died, everything has to be the same, so effectively you've been in a very deep sleep.
This certain project has been funded by someone called "The Illusive Man" because he wants to find out who or what has been attacking human colonies, and he feels only Commander Shepard is the one to lead a team of highly skilled human and alien races on what they will all call the suicide mission.
"Mass Effect 2" runs on "Epic Games Studios" "Unreal 3.5" engine, previously seen in 2008's game of the year "Gears Of War 2" a very good looking engine, and what makes the engine better in "Mass Effect 2" compared to "Gears Of War 2" is the use of colour, where was " Gears Of War 2" has very much a gray scale overlay to the game, we can see the full potential in "Mass Effect 2" with vibrant colours used in the armor and the multiple Alien Characters skin texture.
Now with the use of the new in-game engine, there is a downside which is loading screens, they are often and long, installing the game to your Hard Drive does decrease the loading time, but its still a good 15-20 seconds depending of the size of the area it has to load.
With the introduction of loading screens we loose the elevators, "Mass Effect" was criticised for the length in which you would sit in an elevator as it took you to the next place the elevators were used to hide the loading of the next area, there are good and bad points about this, the good points are in fact that we don't have to sit and watch an elevator travel slower than a snail, the bad points to this are that it takes you out of the game, games that have one continuous story line and don't have levels i feel shouldn't remove you from the game world "Gears of war 2" did a good job of this by not showing loading screens, the levels would load behind a cut scene and therefore you were always in the game. "Metal Gear Solid 4" had an intense loading screen of around 5-6 minutes, but then that was that, for the in tire level, levels lasting 3-4 hours a piece.
This isn't a major flaw within the game, its just my personal opinion, many may like the loading screens and as with all games today, it gives you hints at the bottom of the screen.
The voice acting is world class in this game, with voice casts from " A List " celebrity's such as Martin Sheen (The Departed/Catch me if you can) Seth Green (Austin Powers/Rat Race) Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) and Adam Baldwin (Serenity/Independence Day/The Patriot).
The Soundtrack Composed by Jack Wall is a intense dark soundtrack with a full orchestral band, classic tracks such as "Suicide Mission" really create a atmosphere of bravery and heroism, that I've been unable to find in any other games soundtrack.
Its a soundtrack that really puts that extra emotion within the game universe, and puts that addition weight on the player, as this particular track is played towards the end of the game, it really makes you the player think that every decision that you've made throughout the game, will now help you in your attempt of a successful mission.
The game play for " Mass Effect 2" is mixed, at heart it's a third person shooter, with the choice of different classes it really makes the game more varied, Solider class, is very much a shooter and using the cover to your advantage, flanking the enemy and using your full arsenal of weapons to take down the enemy ahead of you.
Other classes let you play the game more differently, different classes let you use "Biotic" powers you outwit your enemy's, "Slam" uses a physical power to raise the selected enemy into the high Sky's and send him hurling towards the ground the 3 time the speed of light, crushing their body's, other let you become invisible, and sneak up on the enemy from behind, each class lets you play the game to your choice, you can be sneaky and stealthy, or go in all guns blazing, it is really up to you.
The Artificial intelligence is your standard expectations, the enemy will try and outsmart you by flanking you, but in most cases, they'll just run towards you spraying bullets in your general direction, almost as if the AI is expecting you to just gun him down. i was disappointed in the fact that the enemy AI don't use more of their ability's or powers against you, the enemy biotic's don't try and use "Slam" on you, they'll use "Push" which just makes you fall over, but within 5 seconds your up again.
Unfortunately the same can't be said for you friendly AI, often they'll not listen to your orders and just stand behind cover and do nothing, other times they'll shoot like crazy, but wont take cover when taking hits, and they'll just be gunned down, and more often than not they'll just get in the way, but that's not to say their bad, you've just got to make sure that they go into position and then pretty much just leave them there, to take the grunt of the attack while you fight your way into their flanking position, or do what i do, and use you friendly AI's ability's to expose the enemy and shoot them down.
The Message inside "Mass Effect2" really is a universal one.
It takes the idea of unifying under one banner global peace in a fight against a bigger threat.
Recruiting your team of mixed Alien races all with bad history against one another, to come together and fight an elite Alien race with a hunger for destruction, putting the past behind them to an even bigger cause.
this is almost the same idea, with today's global problems, Global Warming, Economic Instability, toady's world says we'll help you do this, if you help us do this, when really they should all unite together to fight the bigger picture, and do so together.
Verdict
Graphics 10/10
Audio 10/10
Soundtrack 10/10
Game play 9/10
AI 7/10
Story 10/10
Total = 89.6% (A*) Outstanding
masseffect.bioware.com
