Hello.... My name is The Mor. Two days ago something happened to me that changed my life. I got a copy of Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360. Bringing Mass Effect 2 into my life was like a hit of crack cocaine. Strong and fast... You know it's not good for you, but you don't give a **** because you need it. I have not been able to stop playing. I don't want to stop playing. I'm about 20 hours in. I called in sick just to play. This is Fanhell.com's first video game review. Mass Effect 2 For those of you that are ******s, born under a rock, call themselves E, or are PS3-only types; Mass Effect 2 is a futuristic Sci-fi sequel to the RPG mega-hit created by Bioware about two years ago. You play the role of Commander Shepherd. Commander Shepherd can be male or female and his/her personality is tailor made as you play the game to be a nice guy (Paragon) or an ******* (Renegade). Decisions made throughout the game gives points either to the Paragon or Renegade sides. This unlocks different “good” or “bad” actions you can use in conversations or cut scenes as the game moves forward. ME2 (obviously) is the second game in a trilogy. ME1 ended after Commander Shepherd saved the Citadel and the Universal Council from “Sovereign” an entity from an ancient race called the Reapers. ME2 starts of very fast and very epic. The spoilers come pouring in VERY fast in ME2 so there’s very little I can say without it ****ing it up for you. Just know that it wastes no time in spinning your Massively Effective world all over the ****ing place. Graphics Texture pop ups, gone. Weird walking animation, gone. Awkward mouth movements, gone. ME2 looks spectacular. The textures are nothing short of amazing (wait till you see close ups of Krogans talking). The landscapes are far more diverse and there are tons of different environments. No more having to look at the same indoor looking tunnels on every planet. There’s also several new aliens in the world and they all have unique characteristics and are all somehow bipeds. But they still look great. Sounds They really stepped it up here. ME1 was well known for its stellar voice acting. ME2 doesn’t disappoint. Hell, it steps it up a notch or two. This time it brings a VERY engaging soundtrack to the plate as well. In ME1 the music was forgettable at best. ME2 has very good music and it’s very well places throughout areas to add tension, sadness, or glee when needed. The sound department gets a major A+. There’s also a significantly larger voice cast for NPCs. One of the main characters sounds like its Martin Sheen too! But I’ll have to confirm that. Gameplay This is where the most changes were made in ME2. It feels more solid as a third person shooter than ME1 did. ME1 felt like after every shot, the CPU rolled a D&D die and it calculated if you hit or miss. It took the “twitch” out of it. Some people love that. Others thought it made for a miserable combat experience. ME2 feels and plays like a third person shooter. The cover works now (and is VERY necessary). The Biotic powers have been retooled and are much more usable in combat. Adept class characters rarely need to use guns later on. Inventory management was one of the most complained about things in ME1. For some reason Bioware can’t get it right. It was decent in KOTOR, terrible in Dragon Age, and horrible in ME1. ME2 they kind of took the cowards out and eliminated it. There’s no more inventory or equipment to manage. Yes, you read that correctly. Looting is gone and finding the coolest/best armor for your team is gone. Removed from the game completely. Now upgrades are done via upgrades you can find and/or research in the lab. You then take Shepherd to his room in the ship and select which pieces (or addons) you’d like to use. You cannot make changes to this mid-mission. The same was done with weapons. You cannot switch weapons or find them in battle. You can find plans for weapons and research them in the lab. But you have to go to a loadout screen in the ship and you select which member with launch with which weapons. This was a MAJOR cop out imo and I’m not sure how I’m liking it. From a technical perspective, if that saved up enough memory on missions to make it look as clean and run as smooth as it is, then that’s a win. But it sure makes the game feel less RPG and more shooter. Another runoff because of this, there’s no selling at stores. Now massive amounts of cash is acquired between missions and you’ll find tons of it in missions. For the most part, all upgrades from ME1. Some people will receive this all very well. Others will reject the new non-inventory ME style. Overall ME2 has its grasp on me and I won’t stop till it’s done. One thing I did notice was that it asked for me to start the 2nd disc at the 14 hour mark. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I’m half way done. We’ll just have to wait and see. I expect to beat it this weekend. Love, Mor EDIT: I meant 14 hour mark, not 24 hour mark.
Martin Sheen is in the game http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1540125/. Thanks for the review. Tuesday can't come fast enough
I hated their idea of a inventory system when I heard about it. I thought they were taking the lazy route instead of fixing it. Can you equip your squad in different armor?
No. But if you do their loyalty quest you get a second outfit for everyone. By the way, took me 30 hours to finish the game with most side quests done.
You're squad is totally screwed. Once you do certain missions to gain each member's favor, they have an alt look, but it's just a look. No bonuses. There's upgrades that effect the whole party - Like "Krogans has +10% health". But your party will basically look the same. As will you for the most part. You do have full control of Shepherd's colors and scheme.
Thats garbage I don't even call it a RPG just an Action game. Can't equip your party thats trash. and its even shorter than the last game WooooooW. So far I'm disappointed.
The first one took me about 15-20 hours so it's definitely longer. I really had quite a lot of fun with Mass Effect 2. Yeah, it's more shooter than RPG but that doesn't mean it's any less fun.
It really depends on whether or not you played the side missions (which frankly were no fun at all). If you didn't, you could complete it in 10 hours easily. Mass Effect 2 has a significantly longer plot than the first one. The side missions though ...
lol, play the game before making any judgements. Mor doesn't sound excited about certain changes but then he goes on to say he can't stop playing the game. I mean come on, it's bioware. they've never made a bad game. When you rate their games you have to go from awesome to more awesome. Cept sonic on the ds, that didnt count.
yeah it's an amazing experience. Do I miss gear and looting? absolutely. But this is still something not to be missed. They even turned planetary scanning, computer hacking, and lock cracking into respectful little mini games. I think it's going to be significantly longer than ME1. Also, the side missions in ME2 is actually interesting and different. ME1's side quests were: Find planet, find entrance to base, kill everyone, win. Also, without looting, you're actually spending time PLAYING the game not running around making sure you didn't miss an enemy on the floor.
Well, i'm thinking of the ones where you go do a "favor" for whichever party member. They have cutscenes and all.
Yeah, they are cool. However, I consider them part of the main story as the whole story is about recruiting your team. The whole anomaly stuff and planet scanning on the other hand ...
While planet scanning was tedious, I found myself doing just that for the entire system that I was in before leaving. Exploring the universe also feels more like exploring now since you control the Normandy.
Unfortunately, there's nothing to upgrade for all these resources in the long run. I think I had like 500k of each material (except element zero) at the end with nothing to do with it.
i think so. easily. Scanning planets will take 5+ hours to do em all thoroughly. I'm sure you'll find even more hidden **** doing that too....
Thanks for the review. I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Sounds like it is living up to expectations. Great to hear that. The first one alone for me was worth the price of buying my Xbox 360.
I remember there being talk about keeping your ME1 saves to upload into the second one. Does this change much of anything? I'm on a new 360 so I lost all my saves
Basically all the choices you made get transferred over as does the level you were when you completed it. Basically you start out at level 4 if you were level 60, 50-59 is level 3, 49 and below is level 2. Not really a big bonus as it took 3 playthroughs to reach lvl 60. Basically ME2 will pencil in some of those choices already but not sure its going to pencil every little choice.
I didn't mind the elevators, I liked the discussions between the squad and the news releases about the missions you completed. The only elevator that really bugged me was the one in the Normandy.
For those nearing the end and want a happier ending than me, read here... It's not a killer spoiler, but it will make you a happier **** captain: Spoiler Buy the weapon and shield upgrades for your ship... Sounds silly and useless, but it WILL help.
I think the Mass Effect Trilogy is bound by contract to be exclusive to 360 and Games for Windows until the Trilogy is complete. After that I'd assume they'll release a "Trilogy" all in one for the PS3
Ok... I've explored every single planet and complete every single side quest except one. official game time is 42 hours 27 minutes.
