Mass Effect 2 Review

Game:  Mass Effect 2
Year (s):  2010
Company:  dev.  BioWare
pub.  EA
Engine:  Unreal Engine 3
Type:  Shooter, RPG
Viewpoint:  Third-Person
Metacritic Score: 94
My Score:  Satisfying gameplay with zero plot calories!

Price (as of November 27, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $19.99
Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $10

Game Time: 30 hours

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpK2XnIaeI

See Also


Mass Effect Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2011/01/mass-effect-review.html

Plot

Mass Effect focused on fighting the robotic Geth and their overlords, The Reapers.  Mass Effect 2 begins with the main character dying and then brought back to life two years later.  Mass Effect 2 has no Reapers, almost no Geth, and a irrelevant story mostly about finding a new crew to save the day.

Can I play the game already?

At about fiteen gigs, this take a while to download.  Then, there's the usual DirectX and C++/Visual Basic minor install.  Then, the game had to convert files to a newer format, which took about forty-five minutes.  Then, I had to sign up for EA Online.  I bought the delluxe edition, which has three product keys.  Steam will normally allow users to copy and paste a product key, but with three, this isn't an option.  I manually entered the key code.  Annoying.

I spent about ten mintures trying to unlock the digital deluxe edition content.  Having just signied up for a EA Online, I was not at all interested in signing up for additional crap (Bioware fan club and Mass Effect 2 social network).

I then spent a bit of time (unsuccessfully) attempting to marry my ending Mass Effect save files with the beginning Mass Effect 2 files.  The idea that decisions made early effect the entire trilogy is a huge selling point, and the failure of this aspect is sloppy and piss-poor example of design.

To sum things up, I downloaded a massive game, and got jerked around for an hour afterwards.  I never accessed the DIgital Deulxe content, or my previous save files, and the experience tainted my ongoing gaming experience..  

Save System

Manual Save?  Yes (when not in combat)
Quck Save?  No
Auto Save?  Yes
     Details: Area Load, Checkpoint


Combat/Gameplay

It's still you and two sidekicks, shooting and using powers.  Mass Effect 2 makes greater use of cover, and has streamlined the combat system.  Looting is no longer a thing.

Pretty much everything from hacking and dialogue options to "karma" and mining have returned.  There are some changes laying around, some I liked, some I didn't.  All in all, as enjoyable as the first from a gameplay persepctive.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

The edition I purchased had minor DLC (a few additonal armor and such) that weren't worth the hassle of unlocking).  Mass Effect 3 came out the summer of 2012.  Mass Effect 3 requires a user to install EA Origin (another thing to sign up for) which will not run concurrent with Steam.  Origin has had a lot of complaints, such as having one's account hacked.


Final Thoughts

I feel like this game could have been left out of the triology.  For a variety of reasons touched on already, I have zero interest in Mass Effect 3.  I think of Mass Effect 2 as, "that crappy song by that awesome band ."  OK, but not great.  I recommend the first, but not this one.