'Mass Effect 2' Review - A Wolf In Shepard's Clothing

When we last left Commander Shepard, he (or she, depending on your preference) had just saved all of civilization from an evil alien race who exist only to wipe all life from the galaxy every 50,000 years. Cheerful. "Mass Effect 2" picks up a couple years later and, wouldn't you know it? Things are still pretty grim.

The Basics

On the surface, "Mass Effect 2" is the same basic game as its predecessor. You've got a space-based RPG cut from the typical BioWare cloth, though with more of a focus on action and real-time combat than most games of this type. The developer's trademarks are all there, however. You collect a large crew of followers as the story develops, each with his/her/its own backstory and related sidequests. The story unfolds via predetermined cutscenes and player-controlled dialogue trees. Your basic goal is to gather together an "Ocean's Eleven"-type team of experts, beings enlisted to provide aid in bringing the fight straight to the Reapers.

The Highs

Vast Improvements Over the Original

Up above I said that "Mass Effect 2" is the same basic game as "Mass Effect" on the surface. So what's changed? Everything, that's what. If there was something you didn't like about the original, chances are that its been fixed or done away with completely. The overall experience is tighter and more entertaining, from small features like the replacement of elevators with (considerably shorter) load screens to gameplay-changing ones like removing planetary exploration via MAKO. "Mass Effect 2" is a better game in just about every way.

The Joys Of Combat

Yes, "everything" is a bit general. Let's start with the combat. The cover system has been vastly improved, as has the player's ability to access and make use of special abilities. Your class-specific ability automaps to the Y button and then two additional powers can be mapped to quick taps of LB and RB. This gives you three powers which can be used without stopping the game, plus a handy cooldown meter -- only one, governing all powers -- which is centrally placed around your crosshairs. The overall result is a tighter combat experience, one which is much more fun to play with.

Immersive Story

It's hard to get into too much details without revealing any spoilers; suffice to say that this middle story for the series is the "Empire Strikes Back" to "Mass Effect"'s "A New Hope." We know the characters, some of them, and we know the story. Things get bleak, but believably so. The supporting cast is wonderful and immensely varied; there are a handful of returning characters and a whole crop of new ones, all of whom have their own, individual narratives for you to play through or ignore. On top of all that is an amped-up presentation: dialogue exchanges are marked by more creative uses/placements of the virtual camera, the long-promised "interrupt" feature is well-implemented, the story is complex without being overly confusing and everything just generally has a more organic flow.

Loot Redefined

The most fascinating change made in "Mass Effect 2," one that will assuredly inspire plenty of navel-gazing opining across the Internet, is the game's completely rejiggered approach to loot. I can't think of another RPG that so dramatically takes the pursuit and acquisition of precious treasures and increasingly powerful weapons out of the equation. You'll be able to upgrade your combat abilities and powers in a number of ways, and weapons/armor can be swapped from a rather limited selection between missions, but there is no inventory to manage. And although you only find a handful of new weapons throughout the game, this allows for each one to feel wholly unique in how it handles. It's a refreshing change of pace for the genre, and one that is likely to inspire much discussion in the weeks and months to come.

The Lows

A Miner's Life

In "Mass Effect," players explored the surfaces of planets with "help" -- I use that term loosely -- from a buggy-type vehicle called MAKO. It was perhaps the worst aspect of that first game, and a welcome absence in this new one. Instead of wandering around a mostly empty zone when exploring a planet, players scan the surface from orbit via a rumble-based minigame that pinpoints where resources can be mined. Should you come to orbit a planet on which a sidequest awaits, the game instantly alerts you that an anomaly is detected for you to scan. The minigame is then solely useful for the gathering of resources. While this proves to be a far better system than MAKO driving was, it is still rather tedious since those resources serve as currency for all player and ship upgrades.

Now We're Just Nitpicking

There's really little else to gripe about. The non-story/non-character sidequests tend towards the short side. And there are so many variables to the final mission that it's hard to tell what you might have done wrong if things don't work out the way you'd hoped. You could complain about the lack of emotion conveyed by character expressions or any number of other, relatively small things. These are minor quibbles though.

Final Word

When you get right down to it, we're still in January and "Mass Effect 2" is easy game of the year material. Plenty more will come along as the months wear on of course, but this is an exceptional sequel, building on the strengths of its predecessor and nearly eradicating the weaknesses of the same. The biggest success however is how BioWare effectively offers a fresh, new approach to a long-since-established genre. By emphasizing the RP and stripping away some of the G, they leave players with a fast, tightly-written space adventure that holds you in its grip for 30 or more hours without ever letting go.