Mass Effect 2 (2010)

That's a wrap for Mass Effect 2.

What a game. Again, as with ME1, 16 years later it holds up exceptionally well. The final mission is a masterclass on how to pay off 20 hours of gameplay. It's exciting, you've got decisions, cinematics, amazing combat and cool speeches. It fumbles the final boss, though -- I have no idea what where they thinking.

One thing I realised this time is the voice acting. Not a single dud in the bunch. Every single major character is great. I started noticing that when EDI was talking about "being" the Normandy. The way Tricia Helfer made a robotic but also emotional voice is amazing. Keith Szarabajka also does a great job as Harbinger. He's menacing, ominous and otherworldly. It doesn't hurt that he's got some fantastic lines.

"That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction"... speechless.

Speaking of which, another quote that stuck with me is one of the diaries in the derelict Reaper:

But even a dead god can dream. A god - a real god - is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams.

It ran chills down my spine.

Lair of the Shadow Broker is so awesome. It always gets me. I'm a Talimancer through and through, but at then end of this DLC I always feel the pull to get back with Liara.

Mechanically, It has this weird thing that it gives you a new persistent base with time-based rewards, but I always play it near the end of the game, so I never really use it.

Mordin is such a good character. He treats the genophage and his involvement on it with nuance and engages with it both emotionally and rationally. He's dark but also funny, and almost genuinely alien in how he views the world. I love how he talks about Salarian's emotional processing being faster than human's; "most issues dealt with in Tuchanka, some on the shuttle on the way back."

The genophage itself it's a very fertile ground for ethical discussion, as it's very much a grayscale issue. Mordin hast to juggle thinking that it was justified at a population level, but also contend with its nasty effects to individuals. There's the tension between the obvious intended demographic effects and the unintended cultural effects. The genophage was meant as a stopgap to keep the Krogan in check because their culture was no prepared them to deal with the technological advancements of space travel, but it also wrecked their social order and stagnated their cultural advancement.

It's a bit of a shame that eventually the game ends up forcing it to a more black-and-white resolution where genophage = bad. But I guess there is no room for both a emotionally intense ending and nuanced moral discussion.

Πολύ καλύτερο από το 1ο, προφανέστατα δεν είναι RPG, αλλά action παιχνίδι πια, και απλά είχε αυτά τα splash RPG-lite στοιχεία που εμφανιστήκανε τη δεκαετία 2010-2020 κατα κόρον.

Κατα ταλλα, το mass effect trilogy, σαν gameplay σουπερεπηρεάσε τα παιχνίδια, και είναι πράγματι απολαυστικό, αλλά δεν πρόκειται να ξαναπαίξω την τριλογία ολόκληρη, καθώς η ηθική του παιχνιδιού φλερτάρει εντονότατα με τον φασισμό / human-supremacy, και δεν με ψήνει ντιπ. Εξ'άλλου, φαίνεται και από τις paragon / renegade επιλογές το πόσες προβληματικές είναι κάποιες από αυτές. Αν παίζεις paragon είσαι ένα ατομάκι που τελείως αποκομμένο από την πραγματικότητα, που είσαι λες και παίζεις paladin και τριγυρίζεις και σώζεις κοσμάκη αποδώ κι αποκεί, που δεν τον επηρεάζουν ντιπ οι αποτυχίες (γιατί ως paragon δεν αποτυγχάνεις, ε) και σα renegade είσαι απλά ένα εγωιστικό σκουπίδι. Κάποια απαυτα τα στοιχεία τα ενσωμάτωσε αρκετά καλύτερα το Witcher 3 (αλλά κι αυτό αρκετά grimdark για τα γούστα μου)

I played the first Mass Effect way back on the PS3. I enjoyed it, but the hardware clearly struggled with it. (Those loading times in the elevators almost made me quite a few times.) I'm really glad I waited to play Mass Effect 2 until I got it with the Legendary Edition. It ran flawlessly on the PS5 and holds up well. Some of the facial animations show their age, but this is generally a very good looking game for something coming out of that era.

I liked building up my crew and enjoyed the varied environments. The game was fairly easily overall, so I was kind of shocked how easily characters were killed off in the end mission (oops, spoiler alert). Given how much everyone likes this game, I'm surprised there aren't more space based RPGs.

I've noticed a few compatibility issues playing this on the Series S. I don't know if this is specific to the S, or if it is also present on the Xbox One.

• Periodically I lose control of Sheppard. It has only happened twice, but I lose the ability to move, shoot, fire weapons or issue commands. The game doesn't freeze as my squad mates continue to move around. Sheppard just stops moving and I can't control any of her actions. It's also not a controller issue because the controller is still connected, I am able to pause and navigate the menu, or head out to the Xbox menu and fully navigate or start and play other games. The only solution is to reload my last save.
• Sound cuts out during the skycar chase. This seems to be consistent and isolated to this one sequence.
• Cannot instal or load the Firewalker pack. I have tried multiple times, and the Xbox recognizes it as installed, but the game does not. I see this might be an issue also experienced on Xbox One based on forums I have visited.

So far that's it, which isn't bad. But by comparison wth Mass Effect, ME2 is buggy on Series S.