Mass Effect 2 Review
The Short Version: With interesting enemies, an involving story, solid characters, improved gameplay and a few new features Mass Effect 2 finally becomes that Premium Franchise. The Game helps solidify Bioware’s position as the “PIXAR” of the Western RPG. While not as perfect as some may think, ME2 well earns its place among your games library.
The Review:
What you’ll Like:
• 30 Hours+ of Content worth every penny of the purchase price!
• Improvements on just about every aspect of the original game.
• Great New Additions like the Galaxy Map, Planet Probing, Tech Lab, and Armor Customization.
• Character Specific “Loyalty” Quests are as strong as the Main Story itself and help build attachment to your team.
• Choices during play have weight and consequences in the end-game survival of your party.
• Combat Gameplay Improved over the original with added Ammo & Heavy weapons systems.
What you’ll Hate:
• Party AI is questionable at times.
• Class Restrictions on weapons piss me off.
• Galaxy feels a bit empty without space-traffic and random encounters on Galaxy Map.
• Scanning planets mini-game gets old quickly and is far too slow.
• Cerberus Network Bullshit (An attack on Used Game Buyers – unable to download “free content” without a fee)
Final Verdict:
9/10*
*Mass Effect 2 came very close to our first 10/10 rating, however I felt it just needed one more thing to put it over the top – such as space battles, multiplayer modes, or some new memorable feature: I’m extremely excited to see what Bioware cooks up for the planned Mass Effect 3. And I’m fairly certain the franchise wont end there.
Issue your own Final Score Above!
While I loved this game, I felt that main story was a little underwhelming, especialy compaired to the plot of the first game. While it did improve everything else I couldn’t help but be distracted by it and don’t entierly understand why everyone keeps prasing it.
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I agree with 9/10 because of only two reasons. 1. Half of the people you see they are exactly as he mentioned. You won’t remember who they are because they were such minor characters from the first, so you have no clue who they are. This doesn’t bug me, but however, it does annoy me a little bit. 2. This is the biggest reason. Solider is really the only character I can play as. Soldiers can use all weapons. I’ve tried the vanguard and the infiltrator, but solider is the only class I can play. The rest are completely pointless to me. Other than those two reasons, it is a VERY good game. 9/10.
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I just got Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the PC. My life literally stopped for a week as I sunk 70 hours into both games back to back, engrossed in the amazing story and awesome characters. I hadn’t got into the series earlier cuz I had written it off as just another generic space shooter. Man was that the biggest mistake I’ve made recently. I couldn’t be more stoked for Mass Effect 3.
But Joe dude, how can you forget the best romance option in the game? The sweet and sexy Tali! If you haven’t romanced her yet you should, it came off to me as the one that had the most heart, especially if you had played through ME1 and built up the platonic relationship with her there. Based on er romance and loyalty mission, I’m really hopeful that Bioware allows the relationship to continue into ME3
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I used to think Miranda was hot, but now everytime I see her I think of MJ. Thanks Joe, thanks a lot
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That fog idea was Excellent! Thank you Joe! Thank you!
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Joe, I don’t know if you figured this out but you CAN have assault rifle as a weapon in ANY class. When you get to the *MASSIVE SPOILERS* Collector Ship that has been immobilized by Turians, after you come to the realization as to who the Collectors really are, you get to choose between a Shotgun, Sniper Rifle training and Assault Rifle training. And bam, there you go. Assault rifle for any class.
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i was thinking that joe is going to say or is the techo viking doing the first part of shepard viking
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This game is awesome cant wait for number 3. Reading the article in game informer right now and it looks kick ass.
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Bare minimum cash in was saved for dragon age 2
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come on man this crap is…………………………man
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How could Joe forget Tali?!
Also, a movie would ruin it.
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if i recall correctly, the *new* Kestral armor DLC is full modifiable, and if you mix blue and black colors plus its helmet you get Shepard Tron. he fights for the organics *he he movie references* Miranda doesn’t look like MJ, the combat can be repetitive but theres only so much variety in a shooter any shooter, even Red Dead, having some classes unable to use certain guns was a balancing choice, giving a vanguard a assault rifle from the start would be him the be all end all biotic choice, adept is good but no shotgun. the writing can sway from brilliant to odd at times, but you cant write gold for ever unless your Drew Kapyshun (still cant spell his name). umm anything else. oh yes space battles. Halo Reach proved they can be done to a sublime degree of pretty and gameplay mechanics working. and as well all know, you can fight like a krogen and run like a leopard but you’ll never be better then Commander Shepard. no not even Thane
This nonsensical drivel bought to you by the internets
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Too bad I cant have sex with Kasumi, coz she is my favorite character.
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Hey Joe! If you want sexy bitches with a good “anatomy” your going to have fun playing the old
republic!
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Michael jackson look alike hey she doesn’t look like michael jackson
Renegade way ain’t fun paragon is the way
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I wish they would’ve actually made it LOOK like her,and with her Beautiful blonde hair,then it would have been better.The most they should have done was face capture on Yvonne,and then given Miranda a different hairstyle at least;that would have made her look WAAAY better,but instead we’re stuck with that thing,no offense to Yvonne Strahovski,I love her in “CHUCK”
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Michael Jackson look a like ??? That’s Yvonne Strahovski, show some respect -.-
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I agree with everthing joe said ( i hate Cerberus too) but what he said about Miranda……Yvonne Strahovski! too far but keep up the good work Joe from your fan in the UK
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I know it’s been a while since this review came out, but since then, a bunch of major additions for Mass Effect 2 came out on DLC. I’m wondering what your opinions are on the newest additions, chiefly Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker?
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this game is pretty fun i mean sure the guns are limited but conversation in this game is great and so is combat also they gave personality to your crew members like garus (and thank god they did that cause he was getting annoying in mass effect 1) which made him one of my favorite characters and they made being a renegade funner as well (but it was already fun in the first game) but it was easier to unlock special conversation options in the first and when it comes to a argument between crew members you can run into the extreme risk of not having enough paragon or renegade level.
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the game itself. is a 8/10. i say this because of two things that PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF. (i have a broken mouse to prove it) 1. choosing the stealth (is that right) class means YOU CANT USE AN ASSAULT RIFLE. WHAT THE FUCK GUYS. If theres one thing a shooter should never do is limit certain guns to certain types for the ENTIRE game. some games have a bomber dude that you play for a short round or until you die (i.e. battlefront 2) 2. scanning planets got boring and tedious from the the third planet. i found it a time wasting chore. and one thing that pisses me off more that a rushed game (Diablo 3 please take your sweet time) is company’s throwing in such a MASSIVE TIME WASTER.
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Here’s your problem. Mass Effect is an RPG first,and shooter second. If you want your stupid limitless gun access, go play a game that doesn’t focus on story and development, like Halo.
By the way, you’re a douche.
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“Mass Effect is an RPG first,and shooter second.”
As I said, if fails in both aspects. I found the story really stereotypical and uninteresting. A great deal of decisions you make are illusory. It’s a bad RPG…it’s a poor shooter. The game altogether is not very good.
“If you want your stupid limitless gun access”
… the mechanics from ME is.
The thing is, it’s not stupid
“go play a game that doesn’t focus on story and development, like Halo.”
I heard a lot good comments on Halo. I bet it would be a fun game in contrast to Mass Deffect…
Although I don’t own an Xbox and I probably won’t.
“By the way, you’re a douche. ”
Uh oh! Who let in here an youtube commenter??
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My bad, ignore the above comment…
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A few days ago I got the first Mass Effect for the PC…and I have to say that it lands on my list of “Overhyped Shitty Games” along with Modern Warfail and Assassins Creed. The games tries to be an RPG and a shooter and it fails. It’s not a good RPG and its not a good shooter.
Why is it a bad RPG? I will give an example – the first time Shepard meets that female soldier(Wilson?) she wants to join you’re squad. I said that I don’t want her in the team, but eventually I had to take her. So what was the fucking point about giving me a false option in the dialog box?!
The story didn’t manage to interest me, it’s just typical “bla bla bla there is a great danger threating us, you have to save the universe bla bla). :-/
But to be honest I didn’t really expected Mass Effect to be a good RPG, to be a game with great story. I expected a fun action game with some RPG elements. And it failed me. Because Combat really sucks. At the beginning of the game you get 4 weapons(pistol,sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotgun), the problem with those weapons is that all of them are made from plastic. Like toys for kids you know…and they shoot “ping ping”…like toys…
I was really surprised that in the game you don’t have ammo, you don’t reload even once, instead you’re weapon overheats…I know that modern developers try to make games even more “accessible” for people who don’t posses enough skill to play normal games, but come on, that’s so lame. Friendly AI is retarded, morons always die in seconds, I almost always took the combat specialists, played the game on normal. I don’t have the words to express it, sorry English is not my language, but I’ll just say that fighting the enemies is not satisfying at all.
I stopped playing the game after about 4h, major waste of time.
I know that this is supposed to be a review of ME 2 but I really doubt that the second had some big improvements that would change my mind about it. So I guess that we have a big disagreement Joe. I would score first ME for 5/10. Hell, for some moments I thought that it would be 4/10. This game really angered me.
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Is it fair to say i hate EA?
they pretty much ruin every good game in the galaxy.
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i got this game a few days ago and i’m loving it, angry joe is right about one thing though, renegades rule the world!!
just one question though, who here likes infiltrator class?
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i love playing infiltrator. its kinda cheap but is hella useful if your ballsy (or stupid enough) to go charging in then go invis and run to safety
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Great review Joe, bought this game and the first one because of you, and I must say I agree with you on most of the points. Mass Effect 2 is an awesome, long and addicting game by his story, his intense battles and his impressive dialogue system, which is to me a fantastic way of knowing more of the character and tyo know more about this world. Awesome game, got it at 25$ also.The best 25$ I’ve ever invested.
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Good review Joe When i played the game my class was Solider
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You just don’t know how to play as a Vanguard man lol. Charge is very useful when you learn how to use it right. But I agree with your review. The space combat can be ignored so can the lack of online play. Those 2 things to not make a good game. But with everything else I agree 100%.
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Dude!
Great review, only one thing…
You forgot about the alien sex!
Tali replaces Liara as the alien you get to bone.
Now I wonder about that circular piece on her mask.
lmao.
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One thing that really bothers me in this game is that the party AI really suck at taking cover. On hard difficulty or above they get killed easly because they expose themselves to get shot no matter where I tell them to get cover so I have to solo almost every time.
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I wish I could fuck that striper Alien. OOOOHHHHHBAAAAABBBYYY!
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Yeah Lady-Shepard has the same dance moves. It looks even worse on her, way too butch.
Charge was my favorite ability out of both games lol It’s great for traveling long distances (especially in the timed events), you can hit more then one baddy at a time, if you hit them into walls it helps, you can slam them off ledges.
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I just finished my first play through of ME2 last week and totally agree with your thoughts on it. One thing I thought would have made it better is some incentive to upgrade your ship before you go through the Omega 4 Relay. You can tell from they way this and the first game were that you would eventually need the upgrades, but 90% of the game they’re not being used.
Another thing i found frustrating was in the combat. I also chose Vanguard, which I uploaded from my ME1, and was pissed that the AR was missing till half-way through the game. So I was stuck using the only good at short range sub-machine gun. It took some getting used to, but I did eventually find an attack pattern that worked. It requires short range, which is where the biggest flaw for me was. Changing weapons takes forever! If you need stopping power from your shotgun, you better find cover before you change cause there is a good 2-3 seconds of hang time where you’re a sitting duck. And the vanguard’s shields aren’t nearly good enough to keep you alive if an enemy has a lock on you.
Anyway, love your show, love the new style, and can’t wait to see your review of ME3!
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Really great review, totally agree with you on every point. First time on your site actually, thought you were funny on the Spoony’s E3 coverage so wanted to check your show out, definitely impressed so far!
I do agree with what Vince said though, Bioware needs to make it less of a totally good or totally evil thing. If you choose a middle ground then you won’t have enough paragon or renegade points for harder conversation topics which can lead to losing loyalty with your party members.
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I am playing it on Insanity and damn it is balls hard. In normal mode, I can clear a room with one enemy without taking cover, but in Insanity, you need to take cover even if there is just ONE enemy and a low level enemy. Everyone has shields or extra armor and their aim is deadly.
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I wonder what the Mass Effect move will be like!
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Yeah with the Vanguard it can be hard, charge is a highly tactical maneuver that has to be used at the right time for maximum effectiveness, used at the wrong time you are dead, really it’s risky but the risk can be worth it.
One thing that’s funny is despite most of the classes being unable to use the machine gun it’s quite polarizing to see my Infiltrator Shepard firing it effectively during in game cut scenes.
I agree with allot of the suggested improvements Joe, especially the fog of war system for planet probing and the random space battle mechanic, though I think the reason that Bioware left that out so that no one could mine for experience but instead the player could be given cash rewards as allot of the time during the game I found myself quite strapped for it (y’know just really want to get that new armour up grade but barely 2000 off grrr)
But ALSO comparing Miranda to Micheal Jackson that’s just a little sick and- ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.
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Tali’Zorah. *Yiff Yiff*
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Sorta makes me wonder how long Joe has sat in front of that stripper. lol
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As a newbie, i’m usually looking for information that will help me and your post did, big thanks from me
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Great Game!Great REVIEW! Greece salutes you…!
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I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite site on the web.
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On last thing in the sequal I hope they can have your choices effect the ideas and abilites of your party like they did for your knights of the old republic and I know it the system is different, but come on! Have a Renegade Tali! or a Paragon Jack! now those would be intresting to see. one more thing maybe add more come and go system for the characters like in Dragon Age where if you fuck’d up they’d leave and maybe present more realism into them for if you went against their wishes and make you work to earn back their trust like joe suggested in his Dragon age review.
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I give Mass Effect the same since I wish they would improve the character A.I and like joe said a more populated Galaxy. the moive is another story since we all love the characters we made so I’m kind of scared what they’d do in the moive if involved Shepard and also Hollywood has had a history of piss poor movie based on games, but I’ll keep futher judgement until the announce a director and who is producing it.
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i love mass effect II and this video is funny you done a good job
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you know u can also get tali
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bioware needs to improve the paragon/renegade thing. i wish instead of having to gain a certain amount of paragon or renegade to unlock conversational option(s) or whatever, you should be able to have that option already open. for instance when miranda and jack were about to claw each other faces off, i didnt have enough renegade to stop them both. so i sided with jack because shes fucking scary, and thus miranda was a total bitch to me and i still didnt have enough renegade to tell her to get over it.
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good review overall, one note about vanguard charge is that it is extremely useful if you play vanguard the way it is meant to be played, as the in your face badass who will rip your face off and smile about it.
step 1: charge
step 2: fire shotgun/melee
step 3: repeat until all enemies are dead, take cover as needed
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