Set your mood to ‘renegade’ and ignore that smart-ass alien for BioWare’s second, more combat focused, space adventure
Format: Xbox 360, PC (version played) Dev: BioWare Pub: EA Out: 29/01/10 Players: 1
I have a confession to make: I never completed the first Mass Effect. I thought it was a brilliant game, with a great setting, intuitive dialogue system and genuinely interesting characters, but I just couldn’t overlook its flaws. There were two main flaws that combined to make the original frustrating to play: bad squad member AI and an infrequent autosave system. You would fight along for 20 minutes and then your squad would run into the open (despite moving them in cover formation) causing you all to die, and leaving you to play the last 20 minutes over.
So, when Mass Effect 2 was announced I followed it closely and was pleased to see that the problems I, and many others, experienced were being directly addressed by the developers. A new, improved combat system with squad members that won’t get themselves killed? Check. Regular autosaves? Check. A third-person cover system that works? Check. It all looked too good to be true and BioWare seemed to be living up to their name. You are able to explore this great sci-fi setting without it being interrupted by broken combat.
The improved combat system works on the most part. It is streamlined and visceral. The cover system, too, works a treat and your squad interact with the cover well. Autosaves are now frequent enough not to cause worry and the AI, for both your squad and the enemies, has been vastly improved.
BioWare haven’t rested on their laurels and have changed many other aspects as well. The slate is wiped clean at the start and there’s a host of new and interesting characters (and some old friends) to meet. The boring, grey planets have been replaced by unique worlds. There’s no more driving around in the Mako to find resources. You simply scan the planets’ surfaces from orbit launching probes when you find resources, or launching a mission directly to where you need to be. The inventory system has changed. There are very few screens to navigate through, just pop a point in a slim variety of abilities, when you level up, and choose your load-out when you start a mission.
After a while it all starts feeling a bit, well, dumbed down. They’ve stripped down the combat, stripped down exploration and that, for the most part, was for the best. But I didn’t count on them stripping down on the mission objectives. Sure, some of the last game was too dialogue heavy, but in Mass Effect 2 every mission involves shooting one person or another – there’s no missions were you can just chat, reason and solve problems with your brain. You hurtle through at a 100 miles per hour. It is an adrenaline rush, but at the end there is an emptiness. It’s like a one night stand, it can be fun but the emotional depth is fleeting.
Overall, it is just too ‘FPS-ish’. There are no character stats (beyond the abilities), so you can choose how good you are at hacking, charming or intimidating. It’s solely decided through mini-games and how good/bad you are. No more high-tech weaponry firing tiny particles at super-high speeds, instead there are now weapon clips that are dropped by enemies. Want to choose your weapons? You get a base model and then can research one or two upgraded varieties for each. No deciding between damage, accuracy and heat limits. Mass Effect 2 is a gripping game that flies at a lightning pace, but by pandering to a wider audience, Mass Effect has lost a lot of what made it great.
Adam Dixon
Tags: action, ea, mass effect, rpg
