Mass Effect 2 (2010)

When ever I attempted to start Mass Effect 2, I would contemplate all the choices I had made in the first game. Then go back and play Mass Effect 1 again.

I've now played Mass Effect 2. Completed all available side quests and saved everyone.

Didn't complete all the achievements, so I have an excuse to replay it again. Having just bought the new Legendary edition

Playing as Femshep, ME2 doesn't have any romance option that suits me, but I did get to see some of the romance dialogue with Garrus and I have to say... I was not impressed. You hit on him and he literally says something like "Yeah, why not? I respect you.". WTF is this supposed to be? I mean, it can be someone's cup of tea, and maybe it was the intent to make it sound more like a one-night stand. But still.

Sheppard won't be getting any action before the collector base attack.

The ending revelation in Mass Effect 2 is beyond silly, but this moment of the game is sooo good at continuing the lovecraftian horror of the Reapers from the first game.

“Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. 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. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us.”

Again, playing the first two games back-to-back invariable invites me to compare and contrast.

Yesterday I realised that one of ME2's innovations was a strange one: humour. For the amount of dialogue and interactions, I cannot remember any piece of intentional humour in the first game. But ME2 is filled with it.

Probably because it focuses much more on character than on any overarching Big Plot, but you can find a lot of funny quips and lighthearted situations. Every store on the citadel receiving its customers with the same exact endorsement speech from Shepard never gets old.

In comparison with ME2, ME1 now feels incredibly grimdark and too serious. Every single conversation involves some deep soul-searching or it otherwise reflects sombrely to the events of the story. The talks with Wrex might be an exception, but not really. Even when Wrex tries to take things lightly, his stories are brutal.

I'm glad that the ME series went this way. Further down the line, Lair of the Shadowbroker nailed the space between funny and tragic. And the final entry of the ME universe - Citadel - will punctuates the ending with an affecting mix of jokes, friendliness and melancholy.

Comming fresh from Mass Effec 1, you can easily notice the marked improvement in combat in Mass Effect 2. But you can also notice the marked decline in complexity in most systems.

The disastrous inventory from the first game is gone, but not because it was replaced by something better, but because there is almost no inventory to speak of. And what little inventory is still there, is still pretty bad. You could chose your weapons but the fact that they don't have visible stats renders that prospect rather pointless. You can change your armour, but only at your cabin, and the bonuses are meagre at best.

Levelling up is also simplify beyond what's reasonable, and your teammates have only 2 powers (plus another bonus one if you go through their loyalty mission).

Mission structure also suffered. For better or worse, thanks to the Mako, levels in Mass Effect 1 had some variety. Mass Effect 2 fully embraces the corridor-based cover-shooter to the point where most missions are almost indistinguishable from each other.

I hadn't realised how the beginning Mass Effect 2 parallels Mass Effect.

In the first game, you start in a linear tutorial mission in an attacked human colony where the main bad guy is introduced. Then, you go straight to the Citadel, where you'r first impression is the carefully manicured Presidium.

On the second game, you also start in a linear tutorial mission in an attacked human colony where the main bad guys are introduced. And then, you also go straight to a space station, although this time is the filthy, anarchic Omega.