The Simpsons & Futurama Fanworks Central

[Shockwave]

Okay, anybody who knows me knows I'm a huge Mass Effect fanboy, and that's because I'm a huge sci-fi nut. Star Trek, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Babylon 5, Firefly, Farscape, Stargate, Aliens... all that stuff. I love it. And the thing that made the original game so great more than anything else was the finely crafted universe that took the best elements from the best sci-fi and turned it into something marvelous. Add to that an awesome story filled with twists and turns, great characters and dialogue, immersive locales and a cinematic presentation that made this less a game and more an interactive sci-fi epic movie and you have a winning formula.

One of the other main things the original game touted was the fact that this was the first of a trilogy, somewhat akin to Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings in space, and that one could carry over their save games from the original game into the other two and see the consequences of their actions reflected throughout all three games. Now that the second game is out, we get to see the first real taste of how this worked. One can of course play the game without an import, but this sets the character into a universe where several factors are decided for you and isn't as personal.

Where to start? Well, the story kicks off with a bang from the get-go. One month after the events from the original game your ship is attacked my a mysterious vessel and things instantly go downhill from there. This has been advertised as being the "dark second act" of the trilogy, and it really shows right from the beginning. Import characters will instantly see differences here too, regarding your actions at the climax of the previous game, who you chose to romance (if anybody) and other factors. The basic premise is that you actually die trying to save the pilot Joker, and then we jump forward two years where you find yourself alive and having been rebuilt by pro-human organisation Cerberus. After an introduction battle that acts like a tutorial of sorts, you finally meet the man behind Cerberus: The Illusive Man. He tells you that in the time you were gone things have changed and that you were brought back to help stop human colonies from being attacked by a mysterious new enemy that are believed to have ties to the final enemy you faced in the original game. He instructs you to basically scout the galaxy for the universe's greatest specialists and build the ultimate team to take on this new enemy and stop them.

That's the gist of things really. The main difference between this game and the original is that the original focused more on an unfolding story where the focus shifted and changed as you progressed until you eventually found the truth (or at least some of it) and then did something about it. Mass Effect 2 has a simpler structure where the basic plot is far less complex and basically involves finding a bunch of people, recruiting them and then taking on a supposed suicide mission. The complexity and depth of the main plot doesn't really unfold until the later parts of the game, and that's when the twists come. But while the main story isn't quite as deep as the original, the individual stories of those you are recruiting make up for this by being incredibly well developed and involved. Where the main plot fails to shine, the individual character plots burn brightly.

Each mission involves finding a character, but to survive the final mission you also require characters to be loyal to you, and this is done through each character having their own personal mission. Everybody you get has something on their mind that's bothering them, and it's up to you (if you choose) to help them deal with this. Each mission can be done in several ways, and they can be failed, or not done at all. The more crew you have focused and loyal the greater the chance of success. On top of this you'll want to research several upgrades for your ship to stop it suffering the fate of your original one.

Beyond the story elements, the gameplay ones have changed quite a bit. Some for better, some not. The RPG elements have been scaled back and trimmed quite a bit, which I personally found disappointing. Stats no longer effect your ability to shoot, wear classes of armour or hack/decrypt things. Instead only your class skills are developed. Shooter fans will likely welcome the more Gears of War style shooting mechanics, but RPG fans may be disappointed. For me it's mixed personally... sometimes I'm loving the new style of combat which admittedly feels more precise, but sometimes I long for the original version. There aren't enough weapons either, even though there are more classes of them. In fact, looting is basically gone, with guns, mods and armour and an inventory system thrown aside for a far simpler mechanic where one has only a few guns of each type, a chosen heavy weapon and guns and armour are simply upgraded via research rather than modded as in the original. That said, armour can now be visibly customised now, and comprises of several parts rather than just one. The overheat system with unlimited ammo has been replaced by a thermal clip system where one still has unlimited ammo, but guns need to be cooled via collecting thermal clips that basically act like ammo. These are universal and distribute themselves evenly amongst your weapon loadout.

There's no vehicle sections any more either. The original game took some flack for The Mako sections where one drove around on fairly samey barren worlds for missions. These have been replaced by missions on smaller, but more detailed worlds where you stop off in shuttles and basically perform whatever task the mission requires. These zones feel more alive and the missions are far more varied and original, ranging from simple seek and destroy missions, to trying to explore a teetering shipwreck and missions where one has to perform puzzles or deal with fog, different levels of gravity, etc. While the missions themselves are more original and interesting, they don't feel as well integrated into the game as the original ones, with most being found via scanning planets, and very little moments where your character is presented with a moral choice or even has any dialogue at all. Scanning basically replaces the mineral hunting system from the original, where you used The Mako to find elements and lost artifacts. Instead of landing you now turn the planet around and scan its surface for various elements, then launch probes to retrieve them. Unlike the original game where these elements didn't really pay off beyond extra XP, money and completing a sidequest, in this game you use these elements for research upgrades by giving them to the scientist Mordin who helps develop new technologies for you and your ship.

The new Normandy you get is far larger and more interactive than the original one in the first game too. You get your own quarters now which allows you to customise your attire, armour and music, and also has model ships and fish you can purchase for your fish tank to personalise your cabin more. There are more people to talk to on the ship, more sections to visit, and this only grows as you progress and unlock new areas and recruit new people. The Normandy dialogue with your crew and squadmembers doesn't dry up as fast as it did in the original game too.

Conversation pretty much works the same, with various responses on a dialogue wheel, and the ability to either charm or intimidate people into things to get what you want, which is determined by your Paragon or Renegade score and your past actions. The additional bonus here is the introduction of Paragon and Renegade interrupts, which if you're fast enough allow you to break the conversation to perform an action. These range from things like shooting a gas canister near a villain giving a long monologue, to saving somebody from being shot by pushing them out of harm's way and even giving a traumatised friend a hug when they come across somebody close to them dead. They're a great addition to the game, and provide added depth, be it a "witty" one-liner before a sudden ass-kicking or words of comfort.

Aside from the cinematic presentation and writing, the thing that shines the most though are the characters. Aside from, once again, being able to design your own protagonist and choose how they approach each situation, each character has a great amount of depth and personality, and each has a great story to them and great lines and moments throughout. In fact, the quests that shine the most are the personal loyalty missions. The recruitment ones are all very good, and do a good job of hiding the fact that most involve you wandering through areas filled with cover and shooting at a bunch of enemies before moving on, but it's the personal ones that shine. The writing is far stronger here, and it allows you to delve more into the minds of your crew and find out more about their past and what makes them tick. It also provides the most emotionally resonating moments, where you see otherwise tough characters let their guard down and show some emotion and depth, and perhaps a side to them you didn't know existed. For veterans of the first game this is even more the case for Garrus and Tali, the only two squaddies to return from the original game as full teammates. The rest all appear (assuming they lived) throughout the game in other places though. Without spoiling, the final moments of the game are fantastic too, and you really do feel part of an epic sci-fi adventure where your decisions and the success and well-being of your crew are vital. Which is true... I've seen the alternatives with two playthroughs, both vastly different styles, and massive success and near-failure both provide very different experiences and alter the tone of the final moments.

The cinematic style of the original game was its greatest strength, and the second takes things to a whole new level in this regard. Seamlessly integrating cutscenes with gameplay, this game has some of the best moments and cutscenes I've ever seen in a game, and I'd even go as far to say is up there with some of the best movies. The whole thing is such a rollercoster ride that can be dark one moment, emotionally touching soon after and hilariously after that, as well as action packed and then casually paced and everything inbetween. It has all the hallmarks of a great director, whether you're in a flying car soaring casually through the beautiful city of Illium, avoiding gunfire and floating debris in a space battle or simply watching a character's expressions change as something touches them. It makes everything seem real, and pulls you into the universe, especially when you're the one controlling what does and doesn't happen.

Graphics are marvellous. There's no texture pop-in like in the original game, and the places you go are gorgeous. There's a lot of 1980's style sci-fi inspiration in all the designs. The characters and animations flourish here, especially given the amount of species you encounter. Sound is fantastic, with a great musical score that compliments the overall style, composed by the same guys who did the original, filled with orchestral and synth. It's a far darker and moodier soundtrack than the original, with more actiony and intense heart-pumping music, though there's still the more mellow and heroic stuff. The more militaristic, darker and yet heroic main theme stands out. You'll hear a lot of the old soundtrack in here, along with some Blade Runner, Aliens, Serenity, etc. inspired stuff. The voice acting is marvellous, with Martin Sheen shining as The Illusive Man in particular, as well as having Michael "Worf" Dorn as a krogan, Adam "Jayne Cobb" Baldwin and Claudia "Aeryn Sun" Black as quarians and Seth Green returning as Joker. The original cast return where they can, including Mark Meer or Jennifer Hale as Shepard (depending on your gender), Keith David as Admiral or Councilor Anderson (depending on your choice in Mass Effect 1) and Liz Sroka and Brandon Keener as Tali and Garrus respectively. Other well-known voice actors join the cast, such as Jim Cummings, Phil LaMarr, Grey Delisle, Stephen Blum, Roger L. Jackson, Dwight Schultz and Fred Tatasciore. Michael Beattie is particularly good as the always amusing salarian doctor Mordin. Whenever an old face returns, they're voiced by the original actor, so there's no cases of immersion being ruined by that.

Speaking of old faces, one of the major factors of the game to finish this off on: the import stuff. This is a mixed bag. When it's well done and integrates well, it does it very well. When it doesn't, it's not bad, but it can feel a bit shallow. For starters, when one imports one only imports their decisions and not their level, stats and items. This is due mostly to the fact that the system has changed so much between games. A Level 60 ME1 character won't come in at Level 60 in ME2, but they will be bumped up to Level 5 rather than start at Level 1. The only other things that carry over that aren't story-related and effect your import are your credits, your morality and whether you did the mineral survey quest. Those with lots of credits will get bonus credits, your morality (either paragon or renegade) will give you a bonus and doing the mineral quest will give you a mineral bonus straight up. Those starting fresh in ME2 will miss out and also have a canon story set for them, mostly putting them at more of a disadvantage than at an advantage. Some will complain about this I'm sure, but I approve... it rewards those who played the original. Import players will also get to see a whole bunch of content and even get a few sidequests that newcomers won't. The main problem is that many factors don't seem to directly effect the story and come across more as easter eggs. While some of this may pay off more in ME3 (such as whether you chose to save the existing alien council or let them die) but here they seem like cool alternatives but don't truly effect events beyond that. Decisions from the original game like who you chose to save or sacrifice in certain cases are accounted for but usually solved by simple substitutions that provide neat alternatives but fail to truly effect the grand scheme of things. Some outcomes are direct and these are always the best ones, while others are relegated to hearing a news report or you receiving a message at your personal terminal. Personally, while these messages and news reports are neat, I'd have preferred far more factors that you can directly involve yourself with, because some of the best moments in the game come from actually wandering across old faces (some seemingly minor in the original game) and seeing how your actions effected them and how what you did changed things in the past two years. I understand it from the point of view that too much involvement in this respect would interfere with the main game to the point of making it completely inaccessible to newcomers, but this game was designed as a trilogy, and if one were to watch The Empire Strikes Back without seeing A New Hope, it's kind of their own fault for coming into things late. It's a shame that even the most major factors seem to take a back seat, but that still doesn't take away the fact that importing is the way to go and rewards you in more ways than one. Seeing the variations, both subtle and big, is great, and overall the game does succeed here, even if it could have done it a little better in places. And there are some things that clearly seem like they'll have a bigger impact in the final part, even if they don't here. It'll be interesting to see where the third part takes things, especially given the fact that everybody can die at the end of this game... including you (though if you die, you can't import into the final part of course). This leaves my mind boggling at the possibilities of where this could go.

Overall, Mass Effect 2 is a mixed bag for me, but one that mostly succeeds. BioWare have streamlined the game to make it more accessible and, admittedly, more fun in some areas. But other areas, particularly the RPG ones, are a bit lacking. I feel they streamlined things a bit much here and there to the point of making the game a bit shallow. It's become a little too much of a shooter and lost some of it's RPG heart in the process. I'm hoping that the third part will have them shifting back to the roots of the original a little more and combining the best elements of both games. One I suppose can either look at it in two ways: Mass Effect 2 is either the most in-depth shooter in history, or it's one of the shallowest RPG's. Which genre you prefer will probably will determine how much you enjoy it. Either way, despite its weaknesses and falling short of becoming the perfect blend between the genres, it succeeds marvelously when it comes to being an interactive movie. Like the original game, the presentation, the universe and the writing raise it above its own shortcomings as a game. As a sci-fi epic where one gets to write their own story, it succeeds brilliantly. It's the closest thing to interactive cinema out there yet, particularly when one imports and plays through both titles. I strongly recommend this game to any big sci-fi fans, but what I recommend more is that you play through the original first, because only then can one truly experience the depth this game has to offer... at least from a narrative standpoint. Here's hoping the third game gains more depth in the gameplay department too. 

Graphics: 10/10 - Beautiful and well designed locations, great character animations and superb lighting and cinematography.
Sound: 10/10 - Fitting soundtrack that suits the sci-fi theme and brilliant voice-acting talent.
Playability 8/10 - A tight game combat wise, but several watered-down RPG factors may put off roleplaying purists. Not as deep as the original in this regard.
Lastability 8/10 - Depends if you own the original game too and import or not. Add 2 points to it if you do. Otherwise it doesn't feel quite as deep as the original.

Grade: 8.5/10

[Wilde Gray Yonder]

Sounds pretty epic. I'll have to play "Mass Effect" first, though.

[satanslittlehelper]

Thats a pretty epic review for an epic game!

If I manage to make some money, which maybe i can via postalgold I hope to be able to buy this soon