A New Cast of Characters – Thane, Jacob, Miranda, Jack, Samara, Mordin, Grunt, Legion, and Zaeed.
One of the most wonderful things about Mass Effect 2 is the sheer number of characters that can be recruited by Shepard in his quest to get to the bottom of the Collector threat. On the way, the Illusive Man (an iconic figure similar to Cancer Man from The X-Files, voiced by Martin Sheen) provides dossiers on several persons-of-note who can be recruited to form the best team the galaxy has to offer.
This is not to say that old favourites do not return – Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, and Tali do make appearances in the game (Garrus and Tali returning as full-fledged team members). In fact, the interaction between the new crew members and the returning members from the original mission to defeat Saren can be highly intriguing – particularly a confrontation between Tali and Legion.
Each and every character has been fully fleshed out – motivations are present, often conflicting with one another. Miranda is dedicated to Cerberus but in obvious awe of Shepard, a rarity for a genetically engineered prodigy like herself. Thane suffers from perfect recall of his memories and a degenerative and ultimately fatal disease that threatens his mortality – a poetic fate for a principled assassin. Jack, or Subject Zero, seems a near-homage to Jack from Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick; she is an experimental test subject who has been tortured and manipulated by Cerberus since birth. This places her in open conflict with Miranda, and loyalties may come into play.
The characterization and plot development present in the writing of Mass Effect 2 shows quality that shames much competing science fiction literature. Drew Karpyshyn (lead writer of Mass Effect and author of the Mass Effect novels as well as other science fiction and fantasy works) has crafted a uniquely intelligent, philosophical, and engrossing intellectual experience.
Complete Stylistic Renovation, No More Messy Inventory, Gears of War-esque Combat
If Mass Effect was a masterpiece plagued by some minor technical inconsistencies or design choices – Mass Effect 2 has simply seperated the wheat from the chaff and has presented a highly polished, intuitive, and accessible action role-playing experience.
No longer will cumbersome inventory management take hours of playing time that could have been spent sniping Geth or engaging in some digital romance – there is no longer an inventory to speak of and all upgrades and features are managed via a simple one-time-purchase mechanism that allows more focus on the crucial gameplay elements of dialogue and fast-paced combat.
The combat is clearly the largest improvement over the initial title – Shepard now is able to run consistently rather than sporadically and his animations seem much more fluid. Biotic, tech, or combat powers are easily mapped to hotkeys for ease of use. Actual combat is much more engaging, evoking memories of Epic Games' Gears of War franchise – utilizing cover systems to great effect and placing great emphasis on the sound and feel of the weapons and other destructive hardware. In the initial Mass Effect, the guns fired tiny chunks of metal that sounded something like popping corn – in Mass Effect 2 the guns are bigger, badder, and sound a lot nastier.
Mass Effect 2 is nearly perfect – there are no major flaws to point out, and the minor flaws that plague every title are surely as subject to personal preference as any other artistic product. The folks at Bioware should be extremely pleased with having produced a game that has likely created it's own subgenre, blending immersive role-playing and conversation-driven interaction with truly exciting instances of combat.
Those who loved Mass Effect 2 might want to read up on the initial game, Mass Effect. Gamers who are looking for something slightly different in terms of role-playing games might like to take a look at Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins, or perhaps Microsoft's / Mistwalker's Lost Odyssey.
Written by : Nicholas Morine