Mass Effect series Review + Retrospective #2: Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect was a galaxy-sprawling adventure in a genuinely interesting universe with a cast of likeable, memorable characters all uniting to stop a pretty generic villain in his plot to destroy the world. It was also a bad third-person shooter with RPG elements.
Mass Effect 2 is a galaxy-sprawling adventure in a genuinely interesting universe with a cast of likeable, memorable characters all uniting to stop some pretty generic villains in their plot to destroy the world. It’s also a bad third-person shooter with no RPG elements.
This review will probably come off as if I hate Mass Effect 2. I don’t, and in fact, I think it’s a pretty great game! But there is a lot wrong with it. ME2 was the most beloved of the trilogy back in the day, but I don’t think the years have been kind to it, and I’ve noticed a shift in the fanbase recently to ME2 being the least favored. I think that I would agree with that shift in mindset. ME2 is far from a bad game. Simultaneously, I think Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece and it also kind of sucks.
Maybe I’ve just played ME2 too many times, but while I enjoy practically every moment of the game from a story and character perspective, I always find myself just glad that it’s over by the time I reach the end.
Mass Effect had pretty bad third-person shooting gameplay, though it was slightly improved in Legendary Edition. I had mentioned in my previous review that you felt very out of control and things just sort of happened around you. ME2 has the exact opposite feeling, you always feel very in control, oftentimes to the combat’s detriment. Each encounter is incredibly predictable and repetitive and there’s never any guessing what’s going to happen in any single combat scenario.
Despite ME2’s greater environmental variety than ME1’s prefab space buildings, each room feels identical, with a series of different objects to take cover behind as enemies pour in through doors on the opposite side. Shepard feels like a tank, with very slow, clunky, and purposeful movement. Whereas in ME1 I think you felt very weak at the start and slowly built yourself up over the course of the game, in ME2 Shepard feels incredibly powerful from the get-go. Shepard can basically solo any encounter even on Insanity difficulty, which is probably a good thing, as squadmate AI has hardly been improved.
The shooting itself I think overcorrected from ME1’s looseness, and it feels super stiff. Very few weapons are satisfying to use and those that are were relegated to DLC, such as the Mattock rifle or the Phalanx pistol. The biggest change to the combat that I absolutely loathe is having all powers share a single cooldown. That means, regardless of the ability you use, your entire kit goes on cooldown before you can use another power. I really hate this change, and during this replay of the trilogy on Legendary Edition, I used a mod that put each power on its own cooldown like ME1, and the combat genuinely feels better for it.
I have this much to say about the shooting because it’s what you’re going to be doing for the vast majority of the game. ME2 has its fair share of cutscenes and dialogue (possibly even more than ME1), but the game’s removed the exploration portion from ME1, which I find pretty heartbreaking. ME1’s main story missions railroaded you pretty hard, but it had the giant Citadel to explore, as well as a couple dozen of uncharted worlds to visit in the Mako and take on a bunch of side quests at your own pace. ME2 guts the Citadel in favor of having multiple hubs. While this is great in concept as it allows us to see a lot more of Mass Effect’s universe, they’re all so small and have next to nothing to do on them except the main missions.
The lack of RPG elements in its character progression is also very disappointing. ME1 was hardly a deep role-playing experience, but you could make your character feel more unique on subsequent playthroughs. In ME2, it mostly falls back to class choice. All six classes are made much more distinct, at the sacrifice of individual Shepard variety. Most Soldiers are always going to feel the same, most Engineers are always going to feel the same, and so on. There’s practically zero development for any of your squadmates, with each character having just enough points to max out their few skills, so it oftentimes feels pointless to even have the option. The “role-playing” you’ll do in ME2 mostly boils down to selecting your Paragon or Renegade dialogue options.
So what does Mass Effect 2 do well? After all that, how can I say that I think ME2 is still a great game?
The game’s writing and cast of characters, as well as how it delves into the darker underground of the ME universe, are superb and I think possibly BioWare at their best (Dragon Age: Origins also comes to mind). Thane, Grunt, Jack, and Mordin are some of my favorite characters in the trilogy, and this is also the game where Garrus and Tali really come into their own.
So how does this apply to the game’s story? Mass Effect mostly took place in Citadel Space, whereas ME2 sends us to the Terminus Systems, the wild west of the ME universe where crime is rampant and gangs, assassins, and bounty hunters roam freely. This results in a darker, more action-packed story where Shepard deals with a lot more unsavory types as opposed to the military and bureaucrats seen in ME1.
The story is structured in an almost episodic format – the game has an overarching plot, obviously, but it’s mostly in the background and only relevant at key points. The rest of the game is a few dozen completely unrelated one-off missions. Shepard must find and recruit all 12 members of his new crew, then each crewmember has their own “loyalty mission”, where Shepard must help them through something deeply personal to them.
I think this structure is really cool and a nice change of pace from the average BioWare Intro -> Your Choice of 3 Areas -> Finale route they usually take (see: KOTOR, ME1, Dragon Age). Since with a couple of railroaded story mission as an exception, they can all be done at your own pace, you can pick and choose which ones you want to do and when. Theoretically, it’s possible to not even recruit nearly half the squad if you don’t feel like it.
The loyalty missions are frequently cited as a highlight of the game. Most of the squadmates are excellently written and provide you with an interesting “episode” to play. There’s definitely disparity in quality between them, with some like Mordin’s and Tali’s providing vital story information necessary for ME3, and others like Miranda’s and Grunt’s being little more than a few combat rooms. All in all, I think they’re honestly a great idea and one of the best parts of the trilogy. I really like being able to take every single squaddie on a 1-on-1 personal mission of theirs and learning more about them. For reference, here is my ranking of the squad’s loyalty missions: Tali > Samara > Legion > Mordin > Thane > Kasumi > Grunt > Garrus > Jack > Miranda > Zaeed > Jacob.
That’s not to say the story is without issues. Unfortunately, dev time was clearly cut short and a lot of the story feels rushed out the door or unfinished. On most missions and loyalty missions especially, the “third wheel” squaddie or the one that’s not the focus of the mission is often dead silent, just staring in the background, with very little to say on the current scenario. Tali, Thane, Samara, and Legion were clearly meant to be obtained earlier, as with save editing or mods, they can inserted into an early-game save and they have recorded lines for early-game missions. Legion especially is a shame because he’s recruited so late in the game, you’re only going to have an opportunity to use him for a single mission if you’re going for a perfect game.
The main idea of Shepard dying and being resurrected by Cerberus is laughable and nonsensical. I never liked this plot point as it feels kind of contrived. Being forced to work with a terrorist group that we’ve seen their handiwork firsthand in ME1 is also kind of frustrating, and you don’t really have a choice or say in the matter. Also, as many people have already said, the overarching plot of the Collectors kind of feels like a filler arc. At the end of ME1, the Reapers are coming, at the end of ME2, the Reapers are still coming, and in ME3, they’re already here. ME2 can essentially be skipped from a story perspective, and a quick Wiki read would catch you up on what’s important. In fact, ME3 has more connections and ties to ME1 than it does ME2.
However it all builds up to the iconic and legendary Suicide Mission at the end of the game. After gathering your “dirty dozen” of crewmates, you head off into unknown dangerous territory to take the fight to the Collectors in their own home, on a mission you don’t expect to come back from.
The Suicide Mission is not actually as in-depth or interesting as it first appears once you delve into the mechanics of how it works – in fact, you actually kind of have to go out of your way to fuck it up. However, yeah it’s still the coolest and best moment in the entire trilogy. It’s legendary for a reason. It’s a massive 90 minute to 2 hour long, heart-pounding and high-intensity cinematic mission taking place deep in enemy territory. Selecting specialists from your squad to fulfil their unique duties is awesome, and interacting with nearly the entire squad along the way really makes it feel like you’ve accomplished something along the way. It also has a fantastic ending where you can finally tell the Illusive Man to shove it.
Bit of a tangent, but uh, why is Thane here? Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of my favorite characters in the trilogy, but really, why did the Illusive Man send Shepard to recruit him? Mordin is recruited for story reasons, as he’s there to develop the countermeasure for the Seeker Swarms. Kasumi, Tali, and Legion are all acceptable options for your tech specialist in the vents. Garrus, Miranda, and Jacob are strong leaders that bring the secondary fireteam through the Collector Base. Samara and Jack are insanely powerful biotics that can provide a barrier to defend your squad. So that leaves Grunt, Zaeed, and Thane. I don’t think it’s fair to critique Grunt, as he wasn’t part of the Illusive Man’s original set of dossiers, he’s simply just a bonus. Zaeed is an afterthought DLC character. So what’s Thane’s purpose? He can’t be selected for any role and has no story purpose as part of the team. I love Thane, but just an interesting thought I had.
Right, this review has gone on longer than I thought it would. I could still talk about more – planet exploration being replaced by dull planet scanning is a huge downgrade, side quests have less context and dialogue to them but have much more variety and are more interesting to do now, the new Paragon and Renegade interrupt actions are great and add so many fun scenes, etc.
Mass Effect 2 is flawed but fun, and while I think it drops the ball hard on actually being a good sequel to the original Mass Effect, I appreciate what it is and I think it’s an action game worthy of your time.
Mass Effect was a galaxy-sprawling adventure in a genuinely interesting universe with a cast of likeable, memorable characters all uniting to stop a pretty generic villain in his plot to destroy the world. It was also a bad third-person shooter with RPG elements.
Mass Effect 2 is a galaxy-sprawling adventure in a genuinely interesting universe with a cast of likeable, memorable characters all uniting to stop some pretty generic villains in their plot to destroy the world. It’s also a bad third-person shooter with no RPG elements.
This review will probably come off as if I hate Mass Effect 2. I don’t, and in fact, I think it’s a pretty great game! But there is a lot wrong with it. ME2 was the most beloved of the trilogy back in the day, but I don’t think the years have been kind to it, and I’ve noticed a shift in the fanbase recently to ME2 being the least favored. I think that I would agree with that shift in mindset. ME2 is far from a bad game. Simultaneously, I think Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece and it also kind of sucks.
Maybe I’ve just played ME2 too many times, but while I enjoy practically every moment of the game from a story and character perspective, I always find myself just glad that it’s over by the time I reach the end.
Mass Effect had pretty bad third-person shooting gameplay, though it was slightly improved in Legendary Edition. I had mentioned in my previous review that you felt very out of control and things just sort of happened around you. ME2 has the exact opposite feeling, you always feel very in control, oftentimes to the combat’s detriment. Each encounter is incredibly predictable and repetitive and there’s never any guessing what’s going to happen in any single combat scenario.
Despite ME2’s greater environmental variety than ME1’s prefab space buildings, each room feels identical, with a series of different objects to take cover behind as enemies pour in through doors on the opposite side. Shepard feels like a tank, with very slow, clunky, and purposeful movement. Whereas in ME1 I think you felt very weak at the start and slowly built yourself up over the course of the game, in ME2 Shepard feels incredibly powerful from the get-go. Shepard can basically solo any encounter even on Insanity difficulty, which is probably a good thing, as squadmate AI has hardly been improved.
The shooting itself I think overcorrected from ME1’s looseness, and it feels super stiff. Very few weapons are satisfying to use and those that are were relegated to DLC, such as the Mattock rifle or the Phalanx pistol. The biggest change to the combat that I absolutely loathe is having all powers share a single cooldown. That means, regardless of the ability you use, your entire kit goes on cooldown before you can use another power. I really hate this change, and during this replay of the trilogy on Legendary Edition, I used a mod that put each power on its own cooldown like ME1, and the combat genuinely feels better for it.
I have this much to say about the shooting because it’s what you’re going to be doing for the vast majority of the game. ME2 has its fair share of cutscenes and dialogue (possibly even more than ME1), but the game’s removed the exploration portion from ME1, which I find pretty heartbreaking. ME1’s main story missions railroaded you pretty hard, but it had the giant Citadel to explore, as well as a couple dozen of uncharted worlds to visit in the Mako and take on a bunch of side quests at your own pace. ME2 guts the Citadel in favor of having multiple hubs. While this is great in concept as it allows us to see a lot more of Mass Effect’s universe, they’re all so small and have next to nothing to do on them except the main missions.
The lack of RPG elements in its character progression is also very disappointing. ME1 was hardly a deep role-playing experience, but you could make your character feel more unique on subsequent playthroughs. In ME2, it mostly falls back to class choice. All six classes are made much more distinct, at the sacrifice of individual Shepard variety. Most Soldiers are always going to feel the same, most Engineers are always going to feel the same, and so on. There’s practically zero development for any of your squadmates, with each character having just enough points to max out their few skills, so it oftentimes feels pointless to even have the option. The “role-playing” you’ll do in ME2 mostly boils down to selecting your Paragon or Renegade dialogue options.
So what does Mass Effect 2 do well? After all that, how can I say that I think ME2 is still a great game?
The game’s writing and cast of characters, as well as how it delves into the darker underground of the ME universe, are superb and I think possibly BioWare at their best (Dragon Age: Origins also comes to mind). Thane, Grunt, Jack, and Mordin are some of my favorite characters in the trilogy, and this is also the game where Garrus and Tali really come into their own.
So how does this apply to the game’s story? Mass Effect mostly took place in Citadel Space, whereas ME2 sends us to the Terminus Systems, the wild west of the ME universe where crime is rampant and gangs, assassins, and bounty hunters roam freely. This results in a darker, more action-packed story where Shepard deals with a lot more unsavory types as opposed to the military and bureaucrats seen in ME1.
The story is structured in an almost episodic format – the game has an overarching plot, obviously, but it’s mostly in the background and only relevant at key points. The rest of the game is a few dozen completely unrelated one-off missions. Shepard must find and recruit all 12 members of his new crew, then each crewmember has their own “loyalty mission”, where Shepard must help them through something deeply personal to them.
I think this structure is really cool and a nice change of pace from the average BioWare Intro -> Your Choice of 3 Areas -> Finale route they usually take (see: KOTOR, ME1, Dragon Age). Since with a couple of railroaded story mission as an exception, they can all be done at your own pace, you can pick and choose which ones you want to do and when. Theoretically, it’s possible to not even recruit nearly half the squad if you don’t feel like it.
The loyalty missions are frequently cited as a highlight of the game. Most of the squadmates are excellently written and provide you with an interesting “episode” to play. There’s definitely disparity in quality between them, with some like Mordin’s and Tali’s providing vital story information necessary for ME3, and others like Miranda’s and Grunt’s being little more than a few combat rooms. All in all, I think they’re honestly a great idea and one of the best parts of the trilogy. I really like being able to take every single squaddie on a 1-on-1 personal mission of theirs and learning more about them. For reference, here is my ranking of the squad’s loyalty missions: Tali > Samara > Legion > Mordin > Thane > Kasumi > Grunt > Garrus > Jack > Miranda > Zaeed > Jacob.
That’s not to say the story is without issues. Unfortunately, dev time was clearly cut short and a lot of the story feels rushed out the door or unfinished. On most missions and loyalty missions especially, the “third wheel” squaddie or the one that’s not the focus of the mission is often dead silent, just staring in the background, with very little to say on the current scenario. Tali, Thane, Samara, and Legion were clearly meant to be obtained earlier, as with save editing or mods, they can inserted into an early-game save and they have recorded lines for early-game missions. Legion especially is a shame because he’s recruited so late in the game, you’re only going to have an opportunity to use him for a single mission if you’re going for a perfect game.
The main idea of Shepard dying and being resurrected by Cerberus is laughable and nonsensical. I never liked this plot point as it feels kind of contrived. Being forced to work with a terrorist group that we’ve seen their handiwork firsthand in ME1 is also kind of frustrating, and you don’t really have a choice or say in the matter. Also, as many people have already said, the overarching plot of the Collectors kind of feels like a filler arc. At the end of ME1, the Reapers are coming, at the end of ME2, the Reapers are still coming, and in ME3, they’re already here. ME2 can essentially be skipped from a story perspective, and a quick Wiki read would catch you up on what’s important. In fact, ME3 has more connections and ties to ME1 than it does ME2.
However it all builds up to the iconic and legendary Suicide Mission at the end of the game. After gathering your “dirty dozen” of crewmates, you head off into unknown dangerous territory to take the fight to the Collectors in their own home, on a mission you don’t expect to come back from.
The Suicide Mission is not actually as in-depth or interesting as it first appears once you delve into the mechanics of how it works – in fact, you actually kind of have to go out of your way to fuck it up. However, yeah it’s still the coolest and best moment in the entire trilogy. It’s legendary for a reason. It’s a massive 90 minute to 2 hour long, heart-pounding and high-intensity cinematic mission taking place deep in enemy territory. Selecting specialists from your squad to fulfil their unique duties is awesome, and interacting with nearly the entire squad along the way really makes it feel like you’ve accomplished something along the way. It also has a fantastic ending where you can finally tell the Illusive Man to shove it.
Bit of a tangent, but uh, why is Thane here? Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of my favorite characters in the trilogy, but really, why did the Illusive Man send Shepard to recruit him? Mordin is recruited for story reasons, as he’s there to develop the countermeasure for the Seeker Swarms. Kasumi, Tali, and Legion are all acceptable options for your tech specialist in the vents. Garrus, Miranda, and Jacob are strong leaders that bring the secondary fireteam through the Collector Base. Samara and Jack are insanely powerful biotics that can provide a barrier to defend your squad. So that leaves Grunt, Zaeed, and Thane. I don’t think it’s fair to critique Grunt, as he wasn’t part of the Illusive Man’s original set of dossiers, he’s simply just a bonus. Zaeed is an afterthought DLC character. So what’s Thane’s purpose? He can’t be selected for any role and has no story purpose as part of the team. I love Thane, but just an interesting thought I had.
Right, this review has gone on longer than I thought it would. I could still talk about more – planet exploration being replaced by dull planet scanning is a huge downgrade, side quests have less context and dialogue to them but have much more variety and are more interesting to do now, the new Paragon and Renegade interrupt actions are great and add so many fun scenes, etc.
Mass Effect 2 is flawed but fun, and while I think it drops the ball hard on actually being a good sequel to the original Mass Effect, I appreciate what it is and I think it’s an action game worthy of your time.