MASS EFFECT 2

While Mass Effect 2 is incredible, it is at the same time... quite saddening. I'm not talking about the lack of Fem-Shep butt cheek or Liara side-boob, but overall the game is much more shallow than the original Mass Effect.

Having said that, this HARD MODE review is taking a look at the title compared to its predecessor, and long-term playability for gamers as fanatical about Mass Effect 2 as I am.


-Combat-
ME1
I made it through ME1 a couple of times by simply maxing out how awesome my pistol was, and spamming the Marksman ability to drop enemies like panties on prom night. I can't imagine how much 'more' easy it would be if I played a class that had an increased reliance on weaponry (played as an engineer both times.) I think that ME2's greatest achievement over ME1 is the more Gears of War esque combat system.

ME2
While the combat has the same general 'feel', improvements to the system were made. And they're awesome. Ease of squad control coupled with a very understandable, very tangible use of strategy (certain abilities against certain enemies depending on their state (Shield/Armor/Barrier/Health)) was a great step toward simplicity, but has at the same time put a limit on "fun" abilities. Throw/Pull/Singularity/Anything that effects 'only' "Health" is essentially what I'm throwing in this catagory. (Note: In ME1, you could throw enemies even if their shields were up.)

Because of the now GLOBAL cooldown of abilities, it is more wise to save squadmates and your own abilities to drop enemy defenses, instead of wasting them on "health."
As it stands, there isn't enough "health" on enemies to want to use the "fun" abilities, if it's red, it's dead. A simple solution to this would be to give enemies more "health", or grant certain "fun" abilities usefulness even when an enemy's defenses is up, say Throwing an enemy even if he has armor, but giving it a diminished effect.

Another complaint about the combat system is the use of "bonus" powers earned from gaining the "loyalty" (a poorly executed concept in itself.) I'll make a brief mention that Ammo powers are beyond stupid, mostly due to the limited skill points gained at max level. Bonus powers incredibly unbalanced, and prove useful only to make an easy game more "challenging" to the player. I won't have to mention Area Reave, because everyone should know that it is hands down one of the most powerful abilities in the game.

Because of the obvious imbalance amongst the bonus powers, players will generally pick a low-cooldown power (like Reave) or a pass, Ammo power, or simply not use one at all.

A simple, and dare I say best solution would be to put all Bonus Powers on a seperate cooldown (while changing the cooldown times of the individual abilities.) This would lift the constraints in place now, effectively broadening the options for customization and playstyle.

-Game World-
ME1
Broad and expansive, the citadel felt like a citadel, the colonies and missions had areas where you could/had to explore/backtrack. There was more interaction between characters, not just in the squad during missions, but getting frequent chit-chat from comms, news on the elevator giving you random missions (screw elevators btw,) hacking into random computers to gain even more information, not to mention just the extensive amount of side quests available and things to find/see, while retaining the ability to progress the main plot whenever you want.

This also goes for character interactions aboard the ship. Characters simply felt deeper, had more to talk about, and displayed their thoughts/wants/desires/quirks more easily. References were made to Shepard's past not just in passing, but made an actual impact on the game through additional missions and character interactions.

ME1 has more feelings of a dynamic world. Dealing with political power struggles, having to make decisions that "feel" more important, and running through missions only to be ambushed (rachni in the vents, geth drop ships, crazed salarians turning on you after you free them.)

ME2
In an obvious effort to either A. Pull in gamers with short attention spans (CoD/CS/GoW, basically the first person shooters) or B. An innocent, but FAIL attempt at making the game more linear... The world has shrunk. A lot. Illium is more like a large room than an amazing city, same goes for the citadel, omega, and every mission you run into.

It feels like every single mission in the game is a "enter, kill hench men, kill boss, complete." Instead of going into a mission, deliberately talking to people and trying to learn more, figuring out puzzles, developing characters, basically 'thinking' at all.

-Plot Holes-
ME1
Can't really get much more thorough than what they did in ME1.

ME2
- Sweet, I finished Legion's mission, so now all of the Heretics will stop following their flawed logic. Meaning they couldn't possibly want to create a weather controlling machine, and shoot at me for no real reason, on a side mission somewhere... God forbid Legion would have something to say about it (even if I hadn't completed his loyalty mission prior to,) or Tali, for that matter.

- Which brings up another point. Why is there no interaction or dialog for side missions. Especially ones that you think might be somewhat important to certain characters. Example: The Quarian you rescue from the Varren, Tali doesn't say a word. Not to mention the lack of any paragon/regenade points from doing those missions, not like rescuing someone from certain death is a big deal right.

- Aside from a single line of dialog from each of your shipmates after you beat the game, the galaxy is unchanged by what you have done. Simply because the game doesn't "stop" like ME1, shouldn't be a reason to "get what you get," if you're going to let us keep playing, you may as well do it right. Or at least pretend like you put some effort into it.


Hard Rating: 7.75/10
The game is fun, a lot of fun, incredibly fun even! ...but it also seems like BioWare was just trying to make a quick buck, evident through the lack of true story telling and character exploration. As a sequel to one of the most awesome games of our time, I don't think ME2 does it justice.