-- This blog was originally written on December 23rd 2010 -- 
 
It's weird for me to think that six months ago I'd never played a Mass Effect game, and yet here I am at the end of 2010 with a lengthy playthrough of both games under my belt. Having just finished  Mass Effect 2 the other day, I'm eager to share my thoughts on it while it's still fresh in my memory. After spending over forty hours following Commander Shepard and his assembled squad in their fight against the Collectors, I've come away with some very mixed feelings about the game. My general opinion is that it's a great game, but there are a few things about it that put a bit of a dampener on the experience. Want specifics? Then read on.

Good to see you again, Shepard I'll start with the aspects of the game that I didn't like, because there are a lot less of those and they're all relatively minor, making it easy to group them all together. First off – exploration. Loved it in the first Mass Effect, really hated it in ME2. Refueling was an inconvenience, planet probing was tedious, and call me crazy, but I really missed the Mako. In terms of characters, some of the game's party members were boring and didn't grip me (specifically Jacob and Miranda). My biggest gripe with the game was its streamlined RPG approach compared to its predecessor, and the absence of any kind of inventory management. These are all small complaints, though, because they don't have too much impact on what makes ME2 so fantastic – the awesome combat, the engaging story, and the interactions between Shepard and the hundreds of individuals he encounters on his journey. Of course, Mass Effect 2 is one of the hottest topics in this year's 'Game of the Year' discussions, so everybody is talking about those things. So instead of harping on about the shooting, or the story, or anything else that everybody already knows about, I'd like to focus on the aspects of the game that made my experience so great.

I think the aspect of Mass Effect 2 that most appealed to me was the character of Commander Shepard. He's the conduit through which all of the game's core mechanics flow, and he serves that purpose brilliantly. When I started up Mass Effect 2 for the very first time and imported my no-nonsense Renegade Shepard from the first game, I genuinely felt like I was meeting up with a good friend who I hadn't seen for three months. I cared about how he was going to take the fight to the Collectors, and I had a great time just following through on his personality traits from the first game. That's my testament to how great a job BioWare have done making Shepard a likeable protagonist.

ME2's supporting cast is very memorable The other thing that made my ME2 experience was the supporting cast. While I ripped on Jacob and Miranda earlier, I do think that most of ME2's party members are brilliantly realised, and on the whole, a big step up from the characters in the first Mass Effect. Sure, I missed Wrex (who wouldn't?), but one look at ME2's roster makes up for it – an eccentric Salarian scientist, a biotic psychopath, a genetically engineered Krogan, an Asari Justicar, a Drell assassin, and even a Geth. Each of these characters was genuinely compelling, well-written, and accompanied by an interesting loyalty mission that gave an even deeper insight into their personalities. Given the suicide-mission nature of the game's main missions, caring about whether these characters live or die is pretty damn important, and BioWare definitely pulled it off.

The final aspect of Mass Effect 2 that blew me away was the way it handled continuity from the first game. I was astonished by just how much attention BioWare had put into carrying over every snippet of information from ME1, from the big decisions right down to the smallest choice, and I loved the multitude of different ways that those choices re-appeared. Sometimes it was as simple as an email from an old acquaintance on Shepard's private terminal. Other times, it was a chance run-in with a character from the first game. The moment that sealed it for me, though, was when my Shepard was introduced to EDI, and Miranda casually mentioned his run-in with a rogue AI on Luna, Earth's moon. Instantly I was transported back to the events of the first game, when that incident took place. That was a completely optional mission, but the game remembered that I'd done it. I think that made the recognition of it all the more astounding.

Mass Effect 2 didn't have as much of an impact on me as its predecessor did, but I think that's mostly because of what Mass Effect was rather than what Mass Effect 2 wasn't. To somebody who's never watched Star Wars or Star Trek, and never really held much interest in what lies beyond the stars, ME1 was one hell of an introduction. Mass Effect 2 was a welcome return to that setting, and I loved the journey it took me on over the last month or so, but it lacked the initial 'wow factor' of the first game for me. It's definitely one of the greatest games I've played this year, and I'll definitely be considering it when I sit down to write up My Best of 2010 Awards in the next week or so. All I can do now is wait patiently for Mass Effect 3, and I can see that old friend Shepard once more.


Dan

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Currently playing – Fallout: New Vegas (X360)