It'd been a good 8 or 9 years since I'd played this game, but I played it a lot back in the day and have a lot of good memories of it. Thankfully, even with the nostalgia goggles off Mass Effect 2 is still awesome.

The first Mass Effect, while great, was a bit clunky. This game removes a lot of the RPG elements and switches them out for 3rd-person shooter gameplay. Think less Knights of the Old Republic and more Gears of War, which lead to a lot of improvements in gameplay.

• Taking cover is actually useful now.
• There's no more loot drops, just permanent weapons plus simple damage+ upgrades you can find and buy.
• Not having to mess with inventory management anymore was fantastic.
• The skill trees are a lot simpler with more streamlined choices.
• Leveling up is also simpler; now you get XP as a quest reward instead of trickling in for every little thing you do.

But for all the gameplay improvements, the story elements are even stronger.

Now, the first Mass Effect was very strong on worldbuilding. Especially if you read the Codex entries. The alien races and their histories are all very rich. The characters, less so. I don't want to say the squadmates were boring in the first game, but...ok, yeah, that is what I want to say. Some, like Garrus and Wrex, were definitely more interesting than others (coughAshleycough).

Mass Effect 2 is about collecting the a team of the greatest badasses in the galaxy and leading them, but that can only be done with trust. It starts with recruiting each of them, which takes up the bulk of the story missions. Every squadmate then gets a loyalty mission that greatly expands their story arcs. And, this being Mass Effect, doing those missions has effects on the story both here and in Mass Effect 3. You can screw up the missions and fail to gain their loyalty, which influences whether they potentially live or die. Heck, Shepard can die himself if you go into the final mission underprepared, or even fully prepared if you make bad choices.

This is a game that is very, very hard to do "right" on the first try. The missions all take place in areas that are inaccessible afterwards, making all the upgrades and money you can find permanently missable. Plus all the choices you have to make with reaching consequences, some of which have the best choices locked out if your Paragon or Renegade score isn't high enough. And there's no way to know when that's going to come up before going into a mission. Flying blind is possible, but is easier said than done. But since this game is awesome, that really just ups the replay value.

Oh, and a final note, the DLC is equally amazing. All solid and gives you some much needed resources. Not to mention the same high-quality worldbuilding and character development, for both old characters and new.

Also, a final final note, just scan planets until you have like 300,000 or so of each resource (half that for element zero). Don't obsess over scanning every planet out there. Don't be me.

Anyway, 5 stars. This game is golden and I hope my replay of Mass Effect 3 is just as pleasant.

Mass Effect was a strong, yet ultimately flawed start to BioWare's next big franchise. It introduced players to it's new characters and universe, leaving fans salivating for its much anticipated sequel. Upon its release, ME2 received widespread critical and commercial success, and for damn good reason. ME2 is a much leaner, more refined experience compared to its predecessor. Its story-telling was going into darker territory, there's a whole new cast of characters in addition to old faces and the combat received a significant overhaul.

The game takes place a couple of years after ME. After an unexpected encounter with a new threat, Shepard finds himself working with the morally questionable Cerberus, led by the aptly named Illusive Man. He provides Shepard with a new ship, resources and dossiers on people best suited to help them launch a suicide mission against a race of beings known as The Collectors. Much like the first game, the general story-telling, while solid in its own right, takes a huge backseat to the individual characters and your relationships with them. The new characters you recruit are some of the very best in the series. There was not a single one that I did not root for or wanted to learn more about, especially when they are given their own individual loyalty missions to further flesh them out. The presentation also received a massive overhaul. General graphical fidelity and has certainly increased, but it's the art design, lighting and cinematography that really sells the experience. The bold colors and dark shadows perfectly add to the darker atmosphere that the game creates, and character interactions are far more dynamic and interesting. Despite the darker tone, the game manages to be surprisingly funny at points as well. The fantastic music and voice acting further sells the experience. BioWare was finally able to develop and refine their own style with ME2.

Combat is another huge improvement. They were able to refine the shooting mechanics and even make a few improvements to character and enemy AI compared to the first game. The game is structured a lot more linear this time around, feeling more like level-to-level progression. The game streamlines a lot, from the exploration to the level up system, and in some respects I do feel that's a step back from ME. It feels far less like an RPG and more like a traditional third-person shooter with RPG elements. That being said, its refinements to gameplay more than make up for that shortcoming. The game also introduces resource collecting, where you would travel to different planets on the galaxy map and launch probes at select spots to collect resources for upgrades that are needed to improve you and your party, but also ones that are vital to your mission. On a fresh playthrough, this is easily the most tedious, boring part of the game. If you want to get the best outcome, however, you're gonna have to do some farming. If you are doing an imported playthrough or have multiple save files on hand, you'll have enough resources from the get-go for this not to be an issue.

ME2 continues ME's emphasis on choices. You can import your save data from that game into ME2, which not only provide subtle and big changes to game world, but you'll also get additional bonuses in resources and credits to make your job a bit easier. The game also retains the traditional Paragon/Renegade system, but this time adds an interrupt system to spice up your choices, some with significance and others just for humor. The decisions you make in this game feel like they have a lot more weight this time around, and have some of the most dire consequences for the series.

If you have more of an affinity for ME's more traditional RPG elements, you may be disappointed with how more stripped down it can feel. If you can look past that, however, you'll find a more interesting world, plenty of memorable characters and refined combat to keep you invested in. Not only do I think this is the best game in the series, but ME2 is one of my all time favorite games.

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure.

Game number 15 was Mass Effect 2, a game that (in my opinion) surpasses its predecessor in almost every way. Shepard was killed and revived by a human supremacist group called Cerberus and its his job to defeat a group of aliens that is killing human colonies. The game plays out as a narrative 3rd person shooter. I don’t really think I can call ME2 a role playing game… you don’t really have many role playing mechanics.

That’s a good transition to the 1 thing that ME2 does worse than ME1: Leveling Up. Leveling up in this game kinda sucks. The choices you make are barely noticeable and mostly just serve to make your abilities last longer or do more damage. It doesn’t change the game at all. The first game didn’t have the craziest leveling system, but it at least felt like I was making important decisions for my character’s growth. Why was that taken out here? This is by far the worst aspect of the game and I literally started using the auto-leveler to save myself time in the second half of the game.

Now, let me tell you why you should play Mass Effect 2 (and the whole trilogy). The reason is because of the world and the characters. I love each and every one of the characters that you interact with (maybe except Miranda… sorry anyone who likes her) and their stories are filled with such depth, care, and personality that really get me to care about their lives and well-being. My favorites are Garrus, Tali, and Jacob.

In ME2 there are special missions that you can do for each of the characters to gain their “loyalty.” Loyal characters get an extra skill, have a little extra dialogue, and will be granted bonuses during the final mission. These loyalty missions are amazing and filled with top-notch writing. I don’t want to go in too much detail (for the sake of spoiling things) but they really leave an impression.

Speaking of spoiling, the final mission of this game may be the best mission I have ever played in any video game of any genre… bar none. I can’t explain how much of an impression this mission had on me. It was my first time playing the game and I didn’t look up any cheats… so things didn’t go perfectly. Further explanation below.

If you don’t know, the final mission of ME2 is called “Suicide” and has your team go through a relay portal to an unknown space in an attempt to defeat the main enemies of the game. There is a chance for any and all of your party members to die on this mission… leaving you without their company in ME3. There are multiple points in this mission where you have to make important decisions about characters in your party and the decisions you make could lead to death for party members. The chance of these characters dying goes down if you did their loyalty mission. Apparently (I read up on this mission after beating it) you also have a chance of losing the rest of your crew depending on how fast you decide to do this mission from when it enters your quest log. Thankfully, I did it immediately and saved the entire crew… but all was not well.

During my mission, I lost Jack, Thane, and GARRRRUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSS :( . Losing Jack and Thane sucked a little bit… but Garrus? I almost reset my save when I lost him. It wasn’t even based on a decision I made. I was so sad. It’s actually insane how bummed I was about a character in a game being randomly scripted to die and actually dying. It's going to suck… but I’m sticking with it and I will play ME3 with my no-Garrus save.

Overall, ME2 is an amazing game with amazing characters, an amazing story, and an amazing world to explore. Some of the gameplay features are a little lacking (like the level up system) but it is mostly a really fun time. Please bump Mass Effect up in your backlog if you haven’t already. (9/10)

I spent 16 hrs, 31 min, and 31 sec playing Mass Effect 2

I have spent 186 hrs and 6 min on the Road to 360 challenge so far

Next game: Ridge Racer 6

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, Mass Effect 2 is the perfect sequel. The gameplay is incredible, the mechanics are engaging, and the character and story, which was the best part of the last installment, is some of the best in recent memory.

You once again play as Shepherd, with a new gang of crewmates comprised of old and new, as you stop a new threat which is yet again another step towards the return of the Reapers, the machine-like aliens that threaten to destroy all life in the galaxy.

The gameplay is incredible, movement is smoother, examining things is easier, and the gunplay is fast and responsive, with abilities actually having a larger effect on the overall gameplay instead of using ridiculously overpowered weaponry to get the job done. All weapons have their advantages and disadvantages, and the game encourages you to adapt to the different situations in a flash, which makes the gameplay loop very addicting and satisfying.

The important part of this game is that your crewmates can die. You must complete their Loyalty missions so there's no distractions for them during the so called Suicide Mission, and make sure they can perform to the best of their ability. If not, they will die, and that include some of your old buddies from your adventure taking down Saren in the last game.

Your decisions from the first Mass Effect are paramount since said decisions make some of the elements in this game change. Certain characters will make appearances depending upon your actions in the first game, and it provides an incredible sense of familiarity, like meeting with some old friends after a couple of years.

The decisions you make in this game will also affect the decisions made in Mass Effect 2, so for me I believe this game is the most important installment in terms of character relations. You want all of your squadmates alive, including old squadmates from the original, and your romantic interest to make sure they have a starring role in Mass Effect 3.

As someone fresh off of Mass Effect, this was an incredible experience. The base game took me around 19 hours to complete, with the Firewalker and the Zaeed Character Expansion pack included with my version of the game, I expect myself fully to come back to the game to finish the DLC content in order to have all story elements and decisions to fully carry over to Mass Effect 3.

I strongly urge people to try out the game for yourself, and if you don't want to play through the first game, which is dated as hell, the Cerberus network, the ingame DLC manager, allows you to play Mass Effect: Genesis, which is a abbreviated version of the first game and allows you to make the necessary story decisions that can carry on to 2.

Right after finishing the first game in the series, I started playing the second one with the imported save file. At first, I confess it was confusing to readjust to the change in keyboard buttons and other introduced mechanics. After some time, things started to clear up, and I was grateful to see that the AI of the squadmates had improved (they became even more useful on the battlefield, without dying all the time).

The negative aspect I felt at the beginning was the fact that I didn't gain experience from kills, but only from the overall mission. One of the best things was the inventory being redesigned for upgrades made within the Normandy's laboratory because dealing with a full inventory and the various items found in the first game was quite tedious (not to mention that if you didn't inspect them beforehand, they got stuck, and you were forced to turn them into omni-gel).

Regarding the storyline, honestly, I increased the percentage of those players who are revisiting or playing old games (in my case, I hadn't had the opportunity in the past). Why this phenomenon? Because, unfortunately, many games, even those with a large production budget, are disappointing a lot of people. Secondly, like all entertainment media, the "progressive spirit" is affecting some games, so we are dealing less with works of entertainment and more with empty products that seek diversity, inclusion, respect for minorities, etc. While these themes are interesting to think about (in the right way), they don't need to invade our cultural media and be practically forced upon society.

Actually, there is quite a bit of "representation" in the game, considering some peculiarities, like the Asari, who are all female (and reproduce, hehe, unnatural, but it's another race, anyway). Don't get me wrong, the problem with progressivism in stories is not merely militant for social agendas, but it's a much more serious problem, as rich plots in values are lost, and the classic definition of terror before evil and hopelessness, in contrast with the goodness and hope of a glorious ending.

This occurs because our West was forged on the foundations of the Greco-Romans, Jews, and Christians. Simply put, Christianity harmonized all these cultures and delivered everything the West has ever produced gloriously. "Are you talking about religion in a video game?" Yes, that's what there is the most! Video games surprise me with how much they talk about religion (like many other works). Everything is religion because every human being is a theologian, even if they don't know it, everyone professes some theology.

I need to be honest in pointing out that I am not neutral (and does neutrality exist?), I am a Reformed Christian, and I intend to expose what I saw of the plot, points that I liked and questionable points. In fact, Mass Effect has a simple plot, but the quality has decreased so much from then till now, that the plot has only aged even better (just like the graphics, which are great).

If any of my analyses come to contain spoilers (I'll avoid it at all costs), I'll warn you. What I'm going to talk about at the beginning is something from the very beginning of the game, so I won't consider it a spoiler, maybe a "dramatic" event, but the game cover shows that there would have to be a solution for it, right?

I'm talking about the fact that Shepard dies at the beginning of the game. Yes, he died. And now? Now, we can keep calm! The Lazarus Project will come into action, and the old commander will be resurrected. Wow... The guy's name is Shepard, he dies, resurrects, and, to top it all off, in one speech, he says that upon knowing he's alive, his old crew will return to combat! "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered."

The new threat is a race called the Collector. The basis of the plot is the investigation into the abduction of thousands of humans from various isolated colonies. Shepard is brought back to life by a billionaire human company, which raises many suspicions and has supremacist human ideas, hehe.

It is clear that the idea of "humans vs. aliens" is a way to lead us to reflect on love for one another, problems like racism, prejudice, and xenophobia. This is commendable when done in this way because it's normal for art: the ability to create empathy for others. This is something that has been lost in today's world since we are pushed to accept things in the worst possible way.

Still, on religious aspects, it's curious how there are systems with various names for hell; there is a character who will be called Legion, in reference to the demons that possessed the Gadarene demoniac; there is a whole discussion of the consciousness of beings who are machines in contrast to organic life.

There is a dark side to the inspirations, which I judge to be the result of the secularization and atheism of our times. Many Western (and especially Japanese, particularly the Final Fantasy series) games have a habit of drawing from Christian sources but sometimes invert the logic. I don't know what kind of view of God people learn, but it is common to see divine attributes being used in an inverted way, although they are used to bring the weight of God's glory and the due reverence to His power, they do not present His loving attribute.

The problem with Mass Effect's theology is that while reality presents the true God and true man, Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ of God, the one who dies on the cross, receiving God's holy wrath, to save sinners (the husks would be good descriptions of what we are, hehe) dead in offenses and trespasses, without the slightest chance of saving themselves, on the other hand, Shepard is the old heresy of free will, the power and strength of one's own human arm. It is the one who challenges the unbeatable power and triumphs.

This is a probabilistic interpretation, in this scenario, the game would follow a blasphemous line, as Sovereign (the name says a lot already) would be a twisted view of God, a profaned vision, the "almighty" against whom man rebels, and triumphs. =(

The plausible probability of another interpretation would be Sovereign receiving attributes as strong as if it seemed something divine in the face of human weakness, in this case, if I use their name (Reaper), using the popular term, we would have the metaphor of death.

Death is the great

human adversary. The only human being who has defeated it was the Lord Jesus Christ. If Shepard is the messianic hero, then he is a metaphor for human cry for the one who will triumph over death; in this sense, Shepard could be a type of Christ, a plot between the savior of humanity, the ideal man, with values (within the possible, lol, he is not perfect), etc.

I would like to think in this way, it makes the plot with the essential criteria (at least until Mass Effect 2, I haven't played the third game yet) of a good Western work: beginning -> problem -> terror -> climax -> solution -> final hope.

The Bible is like this. It starts with the introduction and creation; it shows a problem; then, we learn to see the terror that the problem causes and we have a spark of hope; the hope turns into the sun at noon in Jesus Christ; the new hope goes through the test of time, involving perseverance; the climax is the return of the King, the judgment of the wicked, and the eternal joy of the elect.

Despite human difficulties, we have hope; it makes me hate works without hope in the end or without the famous "happy endings". We need "happy endings" because we always need to produce hope in our works, reinforcing the hope we read in the Scriptures. If I wanted impactful tragedy, I wouldn't look for literature or games, or movies, etc., I would look for sensationalist news (here in Brazil, we have plenty of them, one death worse than the other every hour).

Alert! I am not telling the crude ending, but just commenting about an aspect of it, but I will put the spoiler tag below!

I still fear that the intention was negative because Sovereign says that he was not created, but he is ("self-existent"). This is a blasphemous way of using divine attributes to portray evil beings. On the other hand, well, the end of Mass Effect 2 shows that perhaps the Reapers are not as eternal as they claim to be, thus violating the Creatio Ex Nihil which endorses the eternity of God as the Initial Cause. It may represent a boast of Sovereign, trying to show off as a god, but being just a creature (like Death being under the own power of God, although a formidable enemy).

Ps.: Although I speak about Death as if a person or entity, it is not, okay? I am just using the common way to keep it fine in the allegory. ;)

Anyway, you may not like this review, but you can't disagree with the evidence I presented: games are religious. They use metaphors, names, clippings, etc., from religions, especially Christianity.

Be that as it may, whether the developers have adopted a blasphemous stance and Shepard is the atheist superman who triumphs over the divine being, represented profanely by Sovereign, as a Nietzschean model man, whether Shepard is indeed a messianic typification of human cries for hope against a Sovereign representing Death, in the end, exclusive salvation lies in the Name of Jesus, the Christ who saves human beings dead in offenses and sins, and the merciful and loving God, who even though being Almighty, is not a tyrant of heaven, but is superabundant in steadfast love and grace.

May this analysis stimulate you to know the true Shepherd of our suffering souls.

As much as I enjoyed the first game, I had even more fun with the second.

The biggest improvement for me was the combat, and I think there were two main reasons for that. First, I followed some helpful advice from @BMO and switched to the Adept class, which was way better suited to my play style (Singularity is my jam). Second, my AI squad felt way more effectual this time around, sometimes even turning the tide of a fight (thereby strengthening the bonds I formed with my crewmates). I was particularly impressed by the final fight in Grunt's Rite of Passage, which I lost a couple of times until I focused on supporting Grunt instead of attacking the Thresher Maw myself.

Another improvement for me was the game's more horizontal structure. I spent most of my time simply building up the team, which let me explore more corners of this universe and its fascinating alien lore. It's not perfect: I don't know that I ever bonded with any one crewmate quite as well as I had with Garrus last time around, and no one area felt quite as well realized to me as the original Citadel. But building relationships with these characters and earning their trust scratched a similar itch as building up Confidants or Social Links in a Persona game, which was a welcome surprise. And unlike the first game, I found every potential crewmate interesting.

Also unlike the first game, I opted not to complete every little activity and side quest, particularly those involving the Hammerhead, which felt too constrained to me after enjoying the first game's Mako (which I understand was a divisive mechanic for many). But I loved what I played, and I can see why this is considered such a high point for the series.

(Played on PS5 via Legendary Edition)

Legendary Edition

Grouvee has the Legendary release—which packs the first three Mass Effect games into one release—separate from the individual titles, but I want to review the games individually. But it's important to note that this is the Legendary version, given it's a remaster/brush-up of the original release.

I was not ready for some of the changes Mass Effect 2 throws at you. Some of them I got used to (some different button mapping and general control differences), but one key thing I never adapted to and it really dampened my enthusiasm for what otherwise should have been a really great game.

If you refer back to my review for the first Mass Effect game, one of the things I extol is the absence of ammo looting. Ammo looting is one of those things you expect in shooters of all shapes and sizes. It's so ubiquitous that I never even really questioned the need: Ammo is limited in real life, so therefore ammo is restricted in video games. Sky is blue. Water is wet. However, at least with futuristic/sci-fi shooters, the "need" for ammo looting is removed—why not envision a future where guns kinda just work without having to scurry about a battlefield for bullets? Of course, in practice, most shooters in this vein still demand ammo looting, perhaps because of its standardization in the genre or, I dunno, lack of vision or whatever. Not having to worry about ammo gives me space to think about battles; I can think about what weapons is best for a situation, I can think about which enemy is best to target. I'm not scurrying about trying to ensure my weapon doesn't go "click click" when I pull the trigger.

And Mass Effect 2 goes and reintroduces ammo looting. Now, instead of thinking my way through battles, I'm flailing haphazardly around active gunfights looking for ammo to loot. It feels so, so bad. Two in-game years passed between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, and somehow society devolved about a 130 years. It feels so bad.

To be fair (I don't really want to be fair), the ammo drops plentifully enough that most missions pass without issue. You enter a room, clear the room, then make sure you top up your ammo before moving on. But some of the more extended battles—especially during the final stretch—get pretty perilous when you face ammo-soaking enemies. (I'm only a couple of missions deep in Mass Effect 3 and I can already tell this game is going to be worse on that front; ammo drops seem much more scarce and enemies much beefier; but enough about ME3.)

But let's address the good—the reasons I kept ME2 at four stars.

Graphics get a nice boost from the first (noticeable even in the Legendary Edition). A lot of the tedious, samey side quests have been stripped out in favor of more main mission stuff. YOU GET A FISH TANK. (I nearly quit the game when I learned that doing a couple of missions without feeding them will cause them to die. Thankfully, they're easily replaced.) While I miss the companions from the first game, the new slate is kind of better and display some really cool personalities. There's a few exceptions, but mostly these characters are a delight. I like the conflict that arises from Shepard's dubious partnership with Cerberus. I like the tension that Shepard's two-year absence causes.

But perhaps the best thing ME2 does is provide a finale where it feels like every companion contributes. That was something I kind of noticed with the first ME: The climatic missions basically stick with the three-person squad thing. There's not this sense that your other companions are being used. And it felt weird to me that we spend most of the game developing this group, yet I can only pick two of them to join me. Maybe on a practical level ME2 isn't much different, yet the writing is such that I understand what the other companions are doing, that we're working as a big team towards the same goal, that it feels like the time I spent leveling them up, upgrading items for them, etc, didn't go to waste. And it appears this DOES matter in the final death tally. I didn't follow a walkthrough; I was just playing on gut. Had three companions die during the final mission. I was curious afterwards if this was a built-in standard—the person affected by who I chose for tasks—or if there were varying death totals depending on how things go. So I looked it up. Turns out you can save everyone or kill everyone (including Shepard) and everything in between. So honestly, that I only lost three companions playing on "gut" is something of a miracle, lol. That said, three is probably pretty common for most players, assuming they've dotted the relevant I's and crossed the T's before that final stretch.

I guess as I think about it, that seeming randomness in how many companions die isn't really a strength if I look at the series as a whole. I like it if you isolate ME2 as its own thing. But as a second game in a series, these deaths kind of matter a lot—assuming, of course, that there is opportunity for all of these characters to have some kind of return in ME3. (I'm still early in 3 and the only returning companions so far are those that were not available to be companions in 2.) I think it would have been really easy for me to skim over some of the upgrades that prevent a lot of deaths (they're not sexy upgrades, hard to prioritize over tangible benefits like extra damage) and the only reason I completed them was postponing that marathon of a finale. But grinding planet mining isn't really something I liked, or wanted to spend time doing. I just kind of did it. In some moods I could easily see myself not doing it. And I think if I got Shepard killed—thus forcing a second playthrough in order to have a continuing character for ME3—I'd have been pretty frustrated. (I wonder if it's possible to get Shepard killed if every companion is loyal—maybe that's the built-in "failsafe" that otherwise seems to be lacking.) But what I'm trying to say here, regardless, is that I'm not sure it's a game strength that playing without a walkthrough holding your hand is more likely than not to kill off at least some companions.

The other thing that seems oddly complicated and requiring a walkthrough to properly navigate is the romance element of ME2. I was pretty willing to let Shepard flirt it up with everyone and see where it took me. That was surprisingly unfruitful. I'm not sure if Shepard's prior relationship with Liara shut off some avenues, or if the rumor getting around the ship that that Shepard was willing to bed anyone turned off the more faithful of lovers, or if I just poorly navigated those conversation trees, but the only characters Shepard ended up having the opportunity to pursue was Thane (not super into, but might have if it seemed like it was going to be casual rather than serious) or Samara (more into, but her character arc strikes me as more tragic in nature and it seemed like it was going to take more pushing than I was comfortable with so backed off—although perhaps I was still on the wrong path there, lol). My flirts with preferred companions (Garrus, Miranda, and Mordin) went nowhere. I don't think Tali is a romanceable character just on the practicality of the her suit (maybe I should look that up), but there was one dialogue bit I goofed even if she was one—and she might be my favorite character in the game. Also really loved Kasumi, who I didn't know at the time was a DLC character and, as such, you never get conversations with her—she just monologues at you. I'm glad I didn't do this on an initial playthrough, but if I ever replay the game, I might actually target Morinth. I was kind of tempted during Samara's loyalty mission to aid Morinth, curious how the game would handle that, but ultimately didn't see this Shepard acting like that so stuck to the script. But now that I know Morinth can replace Samara as a companion, that would be a pretty spicy way of playing things.

Anyway, maybe it's for the best that Shepard didn't find much luck in the love department. While I'm not super attached to Liara, I do prefer her to Thane/Samara and whoever among Jack/Jacob/Grunt/Legion is romanceable. (I should note I did have a bit of a tête-à-tête with Kelly, who is always a fun flirt and may or may not have resulted in something physical between the two. That struck me as pretty casual and unlikely to become serious or carry over into ME3, although that became a moot point when Kelly died and I don't think I'll see Shepard looking sadly at a photo of Kelly at any point, lol) So we'll see how ME3 goes. I assume I'll be given the chance to pick things back up with Liara or maybe find someone new (attempt #3 with Garrus? lol). But ultimately, even though I don't really rue missed opportunities for love in ME2, it's just another thing where the path is oddly shrouded by the game, requiring a walkthrough for casual players who want to target a specific romantic path.

Sorry, this got very long. I'll spare y'all further thought, rumination, angst, and etc. Even with some quibbles, very much appreciating my run through the ME universe.

Mass Effect 2: Guess who has a budget now! We got Neil Ross narrating all of the CODEX! We GOT STEVE BLUM! And honestly, I would give this game an extra star ratting simply for the fact that I get to listen to a guy with a nice voice narrate lore about all of the little things from this universe, and I knew of this lore, I went through the effort of playing the first game in the trilogy which most have skipped, but is it me or does the narration make the lore seem more interesting than it was? That or the way it is being worded seems better, writing quality already seems to have improved.

For all of these improvements of making a better game, Mass Effect does something that is also considered a sin for a sequels to do: Literally sacrifice every single aspect of RPG the original first entry have, now I was expecting some retouches of course, they were very much needed, the addition of headshots and actually adding aspects that are third person friendly like better gun play were obvious, but eliminating things such as gun specific skill types? Those were pretty straight forward and easy to understand, why would they eliminate more choices. I will never understand how games of this time when they made a sequel to an RPG game, go from 10 skills to like… 4.

By oversimplifying every single skill you can upgrade, it feels like there is no skill name that is straight forward, when I wanted to upgrade pistols in the original, it was obvious it was to be better with pistols, WITH MASS EFFECT 2 THERE ISN’T ANY SPECIFIC SKILL, JUST ABILITIES AND ONE VAGUE CLASS SKILL. Oh and to make matters worse of this offensive display of over-simplification that’s clear mission is to remove any inch of RPG elements left from this game, they also made ammo types an ability you have to put skill points into. Gone are the days of just setting your ammo to be special, now you have to every time use it as an ability by going into the combat menu and selecting it, which is so MUCH MORE fun than just setting it as that ammo type RIGHT. Now instead of an ammo type it’s like an elemental magic missile spell to select.

But basically what this means is: PLEASE PUT SHORTCUTS FOR YOUR ABILITIES. In other news of recent tweaks: Choices now matter, they don’t give you all of your characters at once, you actually gotta earn them and they’ll be visibly disappointed if you say something wrong for them, I say “Visibly disappointed” because it really does feel like it was designed for a child to understand what point was it that resulted in a defining choice. Many other video games do this because I guess this medium isn’t well known for being subtle or everything needs to be EXTREMELY easy to understand. So expect a lot of “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’VE DONE THIS”.

However I cannot complain much because one of my major complaints was that how everything in the last game gave you everything on a platter immediately, Mass Effect 2 is fast paced but in a good way, from the start it sets you on a very basic premise and doesn’t give you everything all at once besides a big corporate Illuminati man going: “You were the one in the first game I guess so I might give you a start up”, which is so funny to think about, people who had skipped the first game might think they’re eluding to a BIG build up they missed on, like a LOT of important lore on how COMMANDER SHEPPARD BECAME THE ONE AND ONLY HERO, but no, you were ALWAYS the chosen one, you’re not that special you just happened to do some special things at special times.

Considering how hard (hard to the point that if you did not have the best character build or custom built your friends, you’d be pretty much at a disadvantage, which is probably why they took all of that character control from this entry so nobody would complain, which is just lazy but) that virtual mission in the first game was by Ahern's Special Scenario which was based on his time during First Contact War, it has led me to believe that Admiral Ahern was a BETTER SOLDIER THAN COMMANDER SHEPPARD. At least in this game being a sequel, it has an excuse for it, it just makes me wish I had never played the first game because the imaginary plot build up this sequel might elude to simply does not exist. It might as well not be canon that I fucked any of my prior companions, we never had much of a connection anyways besides “Hey! Same mission, we KNEW EACH OTHER FOR 2 MINUTES, die for me won’t ya?”

The world building really does feel like building floors on top of ones made of sand. PSSSSSSST… There’s even a famous fan theory of sorts that theorizes that all of the memories of Sheppard from Mass Effect 1 are made up, because it was simply all a simulation to fuel this cyborg you play as, memories made up to make Sheppard seem like the best person in the whole universe when there is something more sinister going on to make it seem that Humanity is number one and deserves it’s title of supremacy. NOW OF COURSE, this fan theory clearly is there in place to excuse how hastily and rushed the plot of the first game was, and how more serious the tone of the sequel is. Like excuse it however you want, but I cannot stop finding it funny how a lot of the lore in Mass Effect 2 is the developers, now with a budget, hiring more experienced writers to try and cover up the weird Super Hero Fantasy story that was the first game.

I guess it is better to think that way and make up fan theories for the lack of writing tone consistency than to admit that there might have been a chance that humans rising to power in the governments of the universe might have been a thinly veiled allegory to how Jewish people, after undermined and expelled by the world, went on to be accepted and some became some of the greatest highest rank people in power, like Albert Einstein or...Listen I can explain, I couldn’t help but make this connection when I heard there were race riots happening in the Citidal and Anti-human sentiments after some humans gained political power, it feels a little too familiar to post-world war 2 relations.

Anyways from the get go they tell you where you are gonna get your companions which I also consider a sin in terms of companion pacing but the good news is that it is now 11 companions, which is quite a lot, this is Bioware trying to give the SaGa series a run for their money, and at least they this game does not commit the sin of giving you all of the companions all at once except 1 for later. I mean imagine, what kind of game would just give you 90% of all of your companions in the first hour of the game? The way you get them on your team is more realistic, but… Some companions I really don’t want to begin with, they put a certain quest guide system so it shows which planet has the companion you can go pick up like you operate a school bus of sort, which is nice, but you don’t have the option to not pick them up, one introduced to me fairly early seemed like an asshole. I don’t want them on my team, what the fuck?

Now guaranteed, the last Mass Effect you didn’t get a say on who you had on your team either and- Hey I gotta say, what the fuck Mass Effect series? No choice in the matter of who I BRING ABOARD MY SHIP? FUCK’S SAKE. Oh, my dossier just told me that I could have not recruited Wrex and Garrus in the original, but that’s not my gist here, Mass Effect’s thing was that the characters were barely written at all, here they are clearly written to be bad people, and I am forced to have them on my team, not only that, but it is a lot of them, and due to the new loyalty system (which I guess also helps the relationships feel more realistic and not forced) puts you in a position in which you have to babysit your companions, but maybe that’s just me who feels the compulsive need to do it even if I don’t like the companion.

Wait hold up a second… Is that… Amen Break I hear?! Amen BREAK STILL BEING USED IN THE SCI-FI FUTURE CONTROLLED BY ALIENS?! OH MAN. I’m sorry as hard as I want to be on this game, I know the rules. I am now officially a Bioware fan. Ok I’ll talked a lot of shit on this game because the sour taste of the first game is still in my mouth, that and I don’t really respect the “RPG” elements in this entry so much, they were flawed in the first game but that doesn’t mean you should remove them out right and oversimplify everything to a point every single action is reduced to one button, but going back on what I was saying, I have to admit, the overall feel of this sequel is that everything is more grimdark and cooler, which works.

The first game didn’t really work that much with what it was working with, this one actually tries to make some interesting scenarios, make the tone more serious, it’s like the first game had an edgy early 2000 reboot, Amen Break included. Mass Effect 2 looks at Mass Effect 1 and just responds: Oh that wasn’t me back there, that was my…. Twin brother! You must be mistaken, no no, im not an RPG at all, look! No XP when you kill enemies! Mass Effect wouldn’t do that! No sirree! And LOOK! When you beat a dungeon, it just gives you a prompt to return to the ship! Have I mentioned how I got rid of health and now I am literally just a cover based shooter with regenerating health and just a few choices every now and then?! Look at all of the REAL GUN CHOICES I HAVE NOW! IT’S NOT THE SAME WEAPON BUT WITH DIFFERENT STATS AT ALL!

And I am trying to support them in their new decision here but I cannot stop thinking how it feels like they’re almost lying about who they were or are. Ignoring that fact look at how a Star Trek wannabe became a Battlestar Gallactica wannabe instead! Jokes aside it is nice that the series grew to have it’s own identity, feel and look, I kid you not, the first game looked almost identical to Halo’s style. I guess the new budget goes to show they directed some new art directors, corridors and bases no longer look like presets, many things look like a cyberpunk amusement park if anything now, and every location has a lil pre-rendered cutscene for some odd reason, no really, you really shouldn’t have wasted your budget on that if I’m just gonna skip it. Oh boy, SPEAKING OF! They allow you to skip cutscenes now!

World design doesn’t go out of it’s way to sacrifice world building and make long corridors for everything, now it is in the more traditional, more player friendly “everything is claustrophobic and close to each other so you don’t have to walk that long to find one basic necessity”, which is good. The reality not only now chemical but also material.

No I don’t know if it’s because I went to play this entry immediately after the first one, and any bone in my body I had to give Mass Effect some time was already wasted with Mass Effect 1 but, it seems that no matter how my gamer brain tries to motivate me to go and settle it and beat the game so that I can uninstall it, i will not click the mass effect 2 launcher no matter what, should i just accept that i will never play it again and that I had already spent all of my energy and effort to beat the game on the first one? Maybe one day I will return to Mass Effect 2 but it’s game loop of having you do one of the most boring third person shooter action segment levels and then do that again on another planet did not win me over.

Like really, no matter the novelties that are thrown that are pretty nice, the gameplay is so oversimplified that there it is so easy to forget this game al-together due to the lack of investment it is asking of me, it is just a series of repetitive third person shooting segments. I guess it was nice to keep playing planet scanning for while I listen to podcasts in the background. I stopped playing around 22 hours in, last mission was about this autistic savant who was used to combine his mind with the borg.

And no, the first Mass Effect I played was not Mass Effect since that didn't work on my PC. I played Andromeda earlier this year and now I'm done with ME2. I can now see why Andromeda isn't as good as I thought it was. In Mass Effect 2, and probably 1 as well, the different aliens and characters are way more interesting and unique than in Andromeda. The skill and companion system is also better and the fact that there is a paragon/renegade meter. There are way more things than this that just seems very detailed in the older games that didn't even make it to Andromeda which is a shame. And then there's the similarities between the stories, sometimes Andromeda feels like it copy pasted stuff from the old games, just with new names.

However, this game on its own is not without faults. The gameplay is pretty bad, it's kind of a linear open world with locations that are like long corridors. Combat isn't anything special, it has bugs and feels like you're shooting a wall. The game is pretty difficult too, I played on the easiest difficulty and I died several times despite doing my best. The combat gets repetitive after a while. I hate how every action is on the spacebar and that sprinting is useless. The game also focuses a bit too much on gathering allies, I'd like more missions that are just story. But the companions are great, there are many of them and they are all very unique. The last mission is really good in particular. 7/10, good game.