Consequences

by gamer_152

Today is Sunday 23rd May and I can honestly say I have had a great time gaming this week. I finished up Mass Effect 2 fairly early on this week and although my play time "Shepard" seemed to come up in quite a way above the average I always knew it would because I wanted to be so thorough in experiencing the game. By the end of the game I was even more in awe of it than I was this time last week...

Today is Sunday 23rd May and I can honestly say I have had a great time gaming this week. I finished up Mass Effect 2 fairly early on this week and although my play time

"Shepard" seemed to come up in quite a way above the average I always knew it would because I wanted to be so thorough in experiencing the game. By the end of the game I was even more in awe of it than I was this time last week. The original Mass Effect was a very well-made game and yet Mass Effect 2 seems a step up from it in almost every way. I once again have to emphasise how much I loved the level of detail in the Mass Effect universe, it’s obvious that a massive amount of thought has gone into the design of the locations, races, politics and technology. With its cinematic qualities and rich sci-fi world on the surface it seems as though this game would make the perfect movie but an absolutely integral part of the experience was that a large part of what happened in that game was the outcome of your actions (major spoilers ahead).

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

The suicide mission at the end seemed like the perfect finish to the game. It did a great job of tying the plot back into the game and presented more of the satisfying combat. Also, I know that games aren’t all about cutscenes but I do also have to admire the quality of the cutscenes before that final mission; the detail, lighting and angles came together to make it one of the best cinematics I’ve seen in a game. Those cutscenes were also greatly enhanced by the fact that had I not properly prepared myself any of my crew could have died at any moment, luckily we all reached the collector base fine but I’d felt a great feeling of suspense in the moments leading up to that.

Inside the collector base only one of my squad actually died and this was Thane. I could have come out of it a lot worse but even having Thane die felt like a loss, I felt he was a very likeable character and now I am left with a reminder he’s not there every time I enter the squad selection screen and I know he won’t be around for Mass Effect 3. However, I have decided this will be my definitive save for Mass Effect 2 and the one I import into 3. I felt one of the greatest strengths of the game was that there were real consequences for your actions. There have definitely been memorable morale choices in other games but I’ve never played a game which made you feel so attached to the characters and then made it possible to wipe half of them out as a result of your own choices.

So as you may be able to tell I loved Mass Effect 2. I also got Beat Hazard this week, played quite a bit of it and wrote up a review. I’ve also continued to play Tropico 3 and the missions are long but I’m still enjoying it. I’ve made a start on the Fallout 3 Broken Steel DLC and I’m not enjoying it as much as the main game but I think maybe I just need some time to get back into it after playing Mass Effect 2, they are two rather different RPGs.

Thanks for reading, this blog ended up a little shorter this week than I expected but I’ll leave you with this:

-Gamer_152