Mass Effect 1 was a great experience as it was utterly new system where no other RPGs have gone before and on 26th January, Bioware released the sequel for this game, Mass Effect 2 and I've just finished it once yesterday with a clock time of exactly 24 hours. In this review, we'll talk about the story, gameplay, graphics and the whole game on the overall.
Now, lets start with the story. As with the prequel, Cmd.Shepard (whether male or female) has to fight against the Reapers, a race of sentient machines which are extremely large as seen as the Sovereign in the first Mass Effect series and this time, a new enemy has emerged, but in fact not entirely new as the sequel would reveal (Play the game to find out) and this new enemy is also working for the Reapers, The Collectors. The new enemy is abducting colonies of humans and Shepard intends to stop them. At the start of the game, Shepard is attacked and considered dead but resurrected again by Cerberus which just a minor excuse for you to have an entirely new team. In general, ii's all about you and your team saving the universe again.
In my opinion, although the story is about you and your team trying to save the universe's humans from abduction and probably are racing against time, the feeling of the urgency does not exist and there's nothing that's pushing you to do anything. As long as you choose to, you may progress your story at any time. Other than that, you may spent all day leisuring around, scanning planets for resources and there won't be any consequences. There whole story actually revolves in 4 stages which would be recruiting stage, know enemy location stage, prepare to get there stage and lastly assault stage. Overall I would say that the story is nothing special and not too memorable and pales in comparison for maybe say: Final Fantasy 7?
In terms of gameplay, in comparison with the prequel, this game has a much better mechanics and much simplified Upgrades to a better weapon is done automatically and you'll find weapons on the field instead of buying them. What you can buy is the upgrades for the weapons, such as accuracy, damage and ammo upgrades. There is no longer any add-ons for your weapons etc. Missions vary from diplomacy, search and a court case or just plain fighting. The side missions are not much to be bothered as they provided only 40 exp which minuscule to what you have to do sometimes, simply not worth it. Overall, I would say that although the current new system is quite good, but I miss the old times where you can purchase better weapons in shops instead of finding them in the field which you may miss sometimes, which I'm not sure will or will not make it much harder for you at later stages. Firefights are relatively easy and the chances of dying is particularly low unless you don't take cover from enemy fire. What I don't like is that taking cover involves only one button, while it may be useful during intense fights, but sometimes I like a little bit of customization on how I'm taking cover and when. At times, holding (space key) to run puts me in the nearest side cover, e.g facing right which is directly in the path of a frontal enemy fire. Besides that, I also miss the vast space to explore in Mass Effect, think Citadel, and is now confined to small spaces and only a couple of minor forgettable places. Instead of overheating, you now have thermal clips which act as a sort of ammo and not to worry, its abundant, although at times, you're forced to conserve as sometimes it becomes rare.
In terms of graphics, there is nothing much to brag about, although it is a little bit nicer than Mass Effect 2. There isn't much to complain about in terms of performance as I did not even touch any of the settings and yet still displays nicely, unlike Mass Effect 1 where there are sometimes some lag issues at certain parts of the game Graphical glitches are quite a common sight at times where what shouldn't be there is there. Scope zoom images are still clear and detailed which is particularly great for me. Overall, the feel of the different planets and locales are very convincing and atmospherically right although the vast awe I had in the first game no longer exists.
The game on the whole, I had a great time, but it could tedious especially on the planet scanning for resources part. Couldn't they make it simpler or more fun? But well, for those who liked mass effect 1, should definitely buy this while for those who never like mass effect 1 due to its complexity, should try this. In conclusion, the score for this game according to my opinion, would be:-
Story:- 6/10 (Plain)
Graphics:- 8/10
Gameplay:- 9/10
Overall:- 8/10
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