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!
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147 thoughts on “Mass Effect 2 Review”
Ah joe got to disagree with the cerberus network point to be honest the got to make money and if player buy pre owned games Bioware make no more money for it so to be honest i find it fair they ask for some cash before giving you some of the dlc as for me i cant wait for the new hover tank dlc out in march
good review though joe
I do have two other issues that he didn’t mention. One is relatively minor and thats the fact it came on two discs. Now that doesn’t seem like much of a problem but if you lose one of the discs or it gets scratched well you get to play half the game and then right when you are getting into the good stuff the game stops and says “insert disc two” I hate that. The second issue is the fact that they had loading screen hints that mentioned Mass Effect 3. Now its pretty obvious that they are going to make a third game but do they really need to tease us with it throughout the game it makes the ending of 2 bittersweet because yeah you beat the second game but now you are practically screaming for the third. Sort of like the ending of Halo 2 for some people.
Id say it just so they can say we warned you if you mess up mass 3 and as for the 2 discs install them or take care of them its not really that hard not to mess up your discs
you should of mentioned the new interactions during the conversations
Did you try using the Blood Armor from Dragon Age: Origins in Mass Effect 2?
Yo Joe i have tried to get my friends to watch your show and I will also donate sometime.
I have to agree with pretty much everything you say here man. The game was amazing, it had a great graphics overhaul from ME1, but there were a few things they changed which I would have liked to see the same. The inventory system while aggravating made me feel as If I had more options. The weapon selection is greatly reduced, they had the same basic types of weapons, but in ME1 they had several manufacturers for each weapon type and those weapons were better or worse in various aspects. The armor on the other hand is a bit more customizable, allowing you to change up to 5 different pieces (chest, shoulders, gloves, legs, and helmet) as opposed to ME1 only allowing you to change the armor and helmet. I also very much missed the ability to explore the planet surfaces, Mainly because the mako was such a blast to drive. The single most appealing part of ME2 are the team mates (one in particular, if you are a male anyway.) Its not often that you get to fly around the universe with A beautiful woman who has a superb mix of all of the most sought after attributes in Hollywood actress’. Then on top of all that, you can turn the sound off and Miranda truly becomes the perfect pixelated woman. The story is engaging, and like you said your actions do in some ways affect the outcome of the game. I recommend playing through with an ME1 save file as it will truly affect the story of the game. The game has quite a bit of re-playability in other classes, and the opposite sex, your opportunities for romance are mostly different based on the sex of your PC. Many of the conversations you have will change dramatically based on your choices in the first game. Also with an ME1 save file you will get quite a few more quests, and will learn quite a bit more about the status of the galaxy after your 2 year hiatus. All in all its a great game, arguably the best shooter/RPG you can find.
I love the Afterlife club.
No one fucks with Aria.
“• Cerberus Network Bullshit (An attack on Used Game Buyers – unable to download “free content” without a fee)”
This, i dont agree with, if more developers did this maybe we would kill of the damn used game sales for consoles, why is that good? because then console game prices will probably be more like pc game prices…
seriously, for pc i can buy the collectors edition of a game for the price of the standard console price, just stupid
I really agree with what you said Joe.
One thing I’ll add to the AI pathfinding:
I never had much of a problem with the allies getting in my way, as I could always tell them to go sit in a corner if they really annoy me, but mostly they just don’t help a whole lot especially on Insane difficulty. It just seems like they only want to rely on you to take out ever enemy.
Also, many of the missions (especially the sucide mission at the end) felt far too short. Like just a handful of encounters, a moral choice, and then over. Granted I didn’t play most of the side missions with my first playthough, but given that the first game, staying away from spoilers, had a battle on the surface of a planet, through the bowels of the planet, on the outside of the space station and ending with a final battle (or two) against the main baddie, this end mission felt tiny in comparison despite the rather impressive final boss.
Lastly, the loading is a huge pain in the ass. This game will take rediculous amounts of time to load, almost forcing you to download the game onto your hard drive which takes up a crap load of space. A small price to pay for the great graphics though.
Despite my problems with it, the game kicks ass. Also, I enjoyed the ammo system like you did, but it’s actually skewed against certain classes like the Engineer who only have the Heavy Pistol and Machine Pistol to defend themselves with. Granted, they have more abilities, but I wish that there was more of a selection with what weapons you can have, Like, a biotic can only take 3 weapon types, but you can’t take a Shotgun. Plus, more gun types. Only like three types of gun for each category. They have upgrades, but still.
Still, the game is great, and your reivew was as well! Go Joe!
the side quest are even more short, an feel even less compeling, most of them dont even have a morale choice…… they are jsut straght forward short exploration ennemy killing and that’s it
Thoughts on how 3-player co-op can work:
- Make it a separate campaign with its own storyline.
- Allow all players to participate in conversation (Player 1 drives conversation, 2 and 3 add personal input).
- Cut down the amount of conversations.
- Make it mission-based open-world (like ODST).
- Allow players to revive teammates in combat individually.
- Cut out space exploration.
- Allow only users with good connection.
Provided you’ve limited it to a 20-hour game rather than a 100-hour game, but for a multiplayer campaign, that’s pretty long.
And in the end it’s not a Mass Effect game at all… damn it’s a common shooter that’s all… co-op can’t work in Bioware games… unleast your talking about tOR… and i’m still scepticals
Joe is a Babylon 5 fan? Didn’t know anyone still remembered that show
I think that slap was for me. glad you went into it as I was thinking about getting mass effect 2 but was not sure if I needed to play the first game
Cheers
I really enjoyed this review. I felt it covered all of the points and issues I had with the game and would just like to elaborate on a few.
Scanning was defintly my worst complaint about the game, and I thought your suggest was great but would like to see it implemented exactly like RTS fog of war with probes acting as units which light up the area that you collected all resources from by launching it and greyed out areas where you did scan but didn’t find anything. The other issue with scanning is the rate you burn through fuel and probes. I always ran out of probes about halfway through a planet and had to go back, and a single two way trip took off most of the fuel, and even getting the fuel storage upgrade merely makes visiting two places at once nail biting instead of impossible. I would suggest doubling the starting capacity of probes, and lowering fuel consummation rates.
I would also like to see a way to replenish heavy weapon ammo and medi gel supplies. A hundred credits if you have max gel just isn’t worth never having weapon ammo.
Weapon restrictions, especially making assault rifles soldier only is just lame. All heavy weapons can be wielded by all classes so why not just increase the ammo supply In ME1 it made sense as the soldier’s ablities were pretty lame but with the reduced number of ablities in general and the more useful abilities available to soldiers now.
Also there should be group cooldowns instead of global.
I’d say that was a very fair review, though I would personally go with a 9.5 if I could.
I just got done with my first play-through and I’ve gotta say, this was one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I could gush on and on about all the things I enjoyed so I’ll spare you that and just touch on some of the things I didn’t like so much.
I agree about the scanning getting tedious, though it was still more enjoyable than trying to navigate crazy terrain in the Mako for hours on end.
It would be nice if you could see at a glance, after you scan a planet, an indication of what type of resources a planet has. Like a bar graph or something. A lot of my exploring was looking for Element Zero, and even though some of the planet descriptions mention they might have it, there are quite a lot of those to sift through and they aren’t always accurate.
I did have some issues with the AI but I don’t think it was as annoying as your Miranda problem. I had a few of my teammates that seemed to always go kamikaze on me and get wasted. The fight in that one warehouse with two YMIR mechs stands out in particular. Though it was rather amusing to see Jack try and take them both on at point blank range. Didn’t she solo 3 or 4 of those things in her cutscene?
But once I knew which of my guys/gals liked to get into trouble I’d just be more careful in managing them and it worked out fine.
I didn’t mind the addition of the heatsink clip mechanic so much. But it would have been nice if they had still allowed for some heat management before you needed to load a new one. Being able to get more out of a clip if you always fired in short bursts rather than going full auto all the time.
What I had an issue with was the Heavy Weapons, so few of them are really ever worth using. The Grenade Launcher is handy for clearing groups, but once you pick up the Particle Beam your best off sticking with that for the rest of the game. Nuking things with the Cain was certainly fun the first time, but I think it was a bit too limited in it’s firing capacity.
The thing that irked me the most was actually a story element. I don’t want to spoil anything for those that haven’t played it , I hope I’m not saying too much. I’ll just say that if you happened to carry over your relationship with Liara from ME1, I think your going to be disappointed.
All in all my problems with the game were minor compared to how much I loved everything else. I’m planning on replaying it at least 2 times more in the near future. I tend to go more paragon first, then renegade, and I’ve also got a fem-Shepard for a different angle. And eventually I’ll be replaying my original “main” Shepard in a new game + just so I can get everything the way I want it for ME3.
about the movie
I hate movie about video game, and would hate to see the ME franchise raped that way…
Trought they can the same way as the novels… meanings tell a story completelly apart from Shepard story… Like the first one tell the story of the mission Seren and Anderson have done together, the secound is about one of the character of the first novel and is set betwen ME and 2… it go more in deep on Cerberus than the first one did and introduced the collector and explain why the Quarian hate Cerberus in the secound game.
On co-op… just NOOOOOO!!
It would not fit unleast done with a system like SW:tOR will have on dialog where all the characters will have part in the different dialogues. But in a ME game eeach dialogue would be long boring part for the secound player where they can’t do fuck
That’s pretty funny they go to an intergalactic strip where the dancers keep on there clothes. That has to be the most boring strip club ever.
We want to see some green boobies!
C’mon Joe you marked down Dragon Age Origins because they had sex scenes with there clothes on.
I stopped playing Mass Effect 1 when you got to the Citadel and had you running errands that’s when the pace got slow.
The citadel appears about an hour into the game, its literally the first place you visit after the opening sequence/tutorial.
How the hell would co-op even work in a story-driven RPG? Bioware is supposed to have the same kind of dialog and decision system in their new MMO, but I just don’t get it.
Man, i got say….i want coop mode! totally agree with you joe!
I’ve played ME2 twice and admit the game’s over the top of awesome and epic bioware really knows how to strike epicness gold….and alien sex..but also i know the game deserves a 10/10 but 9/10 is more decent because of the co op i agree with joe completely also what i’ve always wanted on the ME series is to play as alien races because Turiens,and Quarians are awesome im tired of playing as a human…on every game i hope that on ME3 they decide to put alien races playable!…
As far as the Cerberus network goes, isn’t it true that you can purchase a new activation code in-game? In essence, it makes a used game cost a bit more, but it JUST came out. Why are we concerned with used games at this point? The majority of people by games of this quality new.
Yes you can… It coat 15$
It’s kinda insulting that you have to buy it for every profile on your 360 trought other that the one who activated it…
…since when does DLC only apply to one account? everything i’ve ever downloaded work for everyone, so why should the cerberus network be any different?
No clue… first time it did this to me… but it did… my brother had to pay to have cerberus content… strangelly, he had access to all my pre-order bonus trought
i ordered it on Amazon yesterday for the PC. schould come within the next 3-7 day… i hope. oh, and if they make a mass effect movie i only expect they get someone better than Uwe Boll. im just sayin…
I’m clearing through the achievements in ME 1 now. I can only play on weekends but progress is steady. I have to say, for all this time I’m putting into playing the story, I really hope the game is as good as everyone says and that playing through the whole campaign won’t get boring like the first one.
That being said, I actually support the notion of getting free content for buying a game new since it rewards dedicated players who actually go and buy a game when it comes out rather than those who exploit prices and wait a few weeks to buy it cheap.
But I also agree with the opinions of the writer of this article on The Fragmatica:
http://thefragmatica.com/2010/01/24/the-cerberus-network-and-the-future-of-downloadable-content/
Long story short, the concept of receiving free DLC from the Cerberus network is good, but still having to shell out dollars for “premium content” defeats the purpose of having something like this in the first place. And the fact that other developers are considering EA’s policy of selling individual items disturbs me.
BTW: What’s up with this obsession of playing completely paragon or renegade? In my honest opinion, there’s a much better playing experience that exists when you simply choose your natural reaction rather than staying devoted to one side or another.
I agree with some of the comments but everybody is treating DLC as a newish trend and talking about its market viability and completely ignoring a huge fact. Paid for premium content is already a widely successful and profitable revenue stream and that companies like EA are playing catch up.
I am of course talking about the “free” MMOs and web-browser based games that have exploded over the past five or so years. The core content is free but you are then charged for premium services be it extra resources, weapons or even timed services such as double experience points and immediate cool downs.
DLC is also a perspective thing. You could view it as something that should be in the game from the start which is a fair view but it could also be viewed in the wider market principles. DLC is like a bolt on sale, the same way that many electronic devices in the UK do not include batteries and you’ll need to buy them separately, that printers do not come with a USB cable and when you order that pizza you’ll have to order that garlic bread as a side order.
Of course as a consumer we will want these bolt-ons included in the price but the companies will want to make money, its even common practices for companies to sell an item at a loss and make the money up on the bolt-ons. This may be the situation many publishers are facing, game development costs have increased but retail prices have been very static and then you’ve got piracy and the 2nd market eating into their sales (when you buy a 2nd hand game not a single penny goes to the developer or publisher). We’ve seen a considerable amount of lay-offs, restructuring and rushed products from the games industry lately, even the big boys like EA have been hit hard. The market has changed considerably outside of the gaming industry, our spending habits in general have changed and the gaming market is unrecognisable from its pre-PS2 days but business models have barely changed and we as consumers are resistant to these changes but this is having a huge negative impact on the developers.
Penny Arcade made a good point about paying real money for virtual clothes for your avatars which is generally considered a moronic idea. If you go to a restaurant and receive excellent service and food what do you do? You tip the waiter/waitress. If you like the main content of a game then just treat paying for DLC of any nature as “tipping” the developers for making a great product.
I see your point but these are single-player games we are talking about. Not many people are willing to make a major commitment to them like MMOs, so it would come naturally that they wouldn’t want to pay for miniscule add-ons to add more value to their playing experience.
Like I said before, the Cerberus Network is a great idea since it allows the developers to update the game with bonus-items without having to charge the player for them. I just don’t like the fact that not only are other developers copying off of EA and web-browser MMOs, but they’re even going so far as to charge real-world instead of in-game currency, keeping certain players for enjoying all the game has to offer. It’s almost like the Horse Armor debate in Oblivion. It seems like something that’s worth having when you download it, only to discover it doesn’t do much for you at all and you wasted a valuable $5 you could have used to buy something more worthwhile.
And about charging for mission-based DLC, it’s not the fact that having to buy the expansion bothers me, but why they couldn’t use their own network to service it with. If they have it sitting there, why not use it?
But I pretty much agree with everything else you said.
I’d have to disagree, I don’t think the size of the DLC really matters and that people are willing to pay for DLC to increase their game time on single player games. The entire expansion market was born out of this desire, DLC is actually an evolution of this regardless of how people perceive. The expansion pack of old is an archaic system fraught with huge issues for both consumers and developers.
You’ve got remember the technology level back when companies were doing the big expansion packs like Throne of Bhaal and Brood Wars, the internet was in its infancy and running over the telephone, speeds were rarely in the double digit kilobytes. A graphics driver could take you hours to download, an album could take days, there was no way in hell you would be able to download game components. The only delivery method available was physical retail and doing piecemeal upgrades over this form of distribution wouldn’t have been financially viable. Would you honestly have bought an expansion disc which just included the Lycan island from Tales of the Sword Coast or just the Blood Elf campaign from the Warcraft 3 expansion pack? At £10 it would have been over-priced, at £5 it wouldn’t have been worth the effort. Developers had to treat add-ons as a mini-release; extra weapons/units, campaigns/storylines that tied in with the original campaign, huge standalone dungeons/missions, higher character progression, new characters and abilities, the list goes on. The problem is that all that takes time…a lot of time, most expansions were released around a year later. Now without any updates you player base will likely already have moved onto the next big thing you have to ask is all that time and money being spent on a project created for a dwindling market be better spent on a true sequel or a new IP. DLC by-passes all these issues, and fr a couple of quid also come into impulse buyer territory.
DLC and the Cerebus network is the future and the only reason it wasn’t the past is because the technology wasn’t there. If it was its unlikely we would have seen expansion packs like we did, it would have been DLC or as I class it, expensive WeiDU
This isn’t the 90′s anymore. The price of DLC must change accordingly with the convenience we now have to acquire it, that we can agree on. But that isn’t the issue.
If developers want to expand the in-game world via missions and stuff, it would make sense if they charged it for download. But individual items should be treated as gifts, appreciation from the developers saying, “Hey, we wanted to thank you for buying our game and for sticking with us all this time. To show our appreciation, we’re giving you [insert item here] which will give you [insert added benefits here]. We hope you like it!”
That’s why I think the concept of the Cerberus network is great. It rewards players who have stuck with the game for so long. It’s a lot like what you said in one of your earlier posts:
“The free DLC is an incentive for loyal fans, people who support Bioware by purchasing the games whereby money goes back to Bioware and when it has to be paid for its just Bioware making sure they get their fair cut from the game sale.”
When you pay more, it’s only fair you should get more in return. That’s what the Cerberus network is there for. But you don’t want to buy a game a year or so later only to have to pay another $15 for a network that gives you the ability to purchase that one expansion which would only add about 2 more hours of game time. The reason for having this kind of system would be if the developer planned on releasing content on a regular basis rather than just selling one or two expansions in the time before the next game comes out.
And now I return back to the topic in my original post. To elaborate further, a system like the Cerberus network is good so long as it is kept the way it is intended (free with a new purchase, paid for with used). The problem arises when a company charges for it whether or not a game is bought free or used and whether or not the company is willing to keep supporting the game with new content.
EDIT: “The problem arises when a company charges for it whether or not a game is bought NEW or used.”
There, I fixed it.
for some reason it wont let me reply to your post. I agree that customer loyalty should be rewarded but sometimes its hard to do that because consumers are essentially split into three groups;
1. Those who buy the game and leave it at that. They don’t want or care for the additional content so aren’t going to buy it.
2. Those that want to support the company or extend their own enjoyment. They want this additional content and are happy to part cash for it.
3. The forum dwellers. Those that think that because they like the game they should be shown loyalty by the devs and provided free content regardless of whether they themselves supported the dev by buying an new version or screwing the dev over by buying a used copy or just flat out pirate it (its not like there’s a difference).
I do agree with you that DLC pricing needs to change or at least become better value for money. It would be nice if say on the Grey Warden castle DLC that we had an additional new enemy unit (even if its just a reskin with a new weapon, armour and skill assignment) that intergrated into the main game, even if it was just as a a new random encounter enemy not just a one-off dungeon that you can’t revisit.
And regarding the cerebus network, Bioware have already announced over twitter there will be more free DLC arriving in a week or so.
another nice review but i most certainly hope that there are no complications in the free dlc market like army of two tfd I’m still stumped on why i haven’t gotten my AS-KR1 (yes i have a saved game of the original A02) :huh
Hey angry joe you and sage are going to start reviewing the same games from now on in that TGWTG?
I didn’t even like Resident Evil myself. Mind you, I didn’t like the games either.
Maybe because you started to play games when the PS2 y XBOX360 come out, but i’am a gamer since the mario bros from NINTENDO. And for me playing this type of games was great. And maybe u don’t care for older games or survival horror.
I played it when it was new and wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t really survival horror at all, more like a shooter with bad controls. The original Alone in the Dark, now that was some good survival horror.
My first console was an Atari 2600; why would you assume I was a new gamer just because my tastes are different from yours?
Thats exactly what i thought, OK changing the subject. How on RPG will be CO-OP the first step was taken on Demon’s Souls.
Watching this review make’s me wanna buy a XBOX 360 just to play that game in particular. I’am a PS3 and Wii owner. Me 360 got the Red Ring of death. Well enougth of that.
Great review and don’t give games 10/10 because they will not make any improvements on posterior games. Maybe a 9.9/10.
And all of the movie based on videogames totally suck, except Resindent Evil 1.
All RE movie suck…
So are every video game movie…
Silent Hill is the least bad of them but they still screwed it
Totally agree in that but RE1 didn´t suck is much compared with the other 2.
But here we are talking about ME 2 review.
Hey Joe are you going to do a review of AVP?What Do you think about Halo:Reach?
one more thing about the dlc i just download it via torrent
Yeah, might not want to broadcast that to everyone, this is a public site so that means everyone can see that post.
Well if the DLC is free and you downloaded it via torrent then its probably safe to assume you downloaded the game too. Nice way to show support for the games industry.
no you don;’t understand i bought the game i only downloaded the dlc
a mass effect movie? i’m against it all the movies that are game based suck
Not necessarily, they’re usually just follow-the-leader cashcows with poor direction. Hey Joe, how about a review on how to make good game-based movies? The rumored Uncharted movie might be a step in the right direction.
Nicely said Joe, you echo most of my own feelings about the game. I’m not sure how well the concept of space traffic would sit though… two of the polarized schools of feeling about true sci fi go seem to sit on space either being completely civilized and just as crowded as a city (like in star trek or star wars) or it really being a vast collection of empty unexplored space. I find myself more drawn to the latter when it comes to gaming, as it provides a certain feeling of isolation and distance. I mean, we’re talking about some serious light years.
The space combat would be a neat addition though, particulary in an action heavy RPG license such as mass effect.
Keep it up.
Surely the best option would be inbetween those two trains of thought. Have heavy space traffic around the core galaxies, freight vessels, ship docks, etc but as you get further away from civilisation the space traffic gets sparser and changes from freight vehicles to mining vessels and larger patrol fleets. This would give you that feeling of the untamed wilderness, empty and dangerous.
BTW: The Charge abillity is used best, if you like to clobber your enemies in close combat. Works for Asari as well as Krogans.
The Cerebus network isn’t so much an attack on the 2nd hand market as much as its a defence against the 2nd market. 2nd hand game sales are worse than piracy for games companies because each second hand game sold IS a lost games sale for that company. Companies make their money on the games sold to the store, buying from the public cuts this section out and removes companies like Bioware from the revenue stream.
Bioware makes no money at all from 2nd hand games, no production or development house does, all the profits go straight to the store. How depressing must it be to put all that time and money into a product and then watch someone take all the profits for it? The free DLC is an incentive for loyal fans, people who support Bioware by purchasing the games whereby money goes back to Bioware and when it has to be paid for its just Bioware making sure they get their fair cut from the game sale.
Bioware also did this for Dragon Age and their customer support was very good in that the majority of people who couldn’t redeem the free DLC (which was a very small minority of the community) were able to get the DLC free of charge.
Hi Joe,
!
great review of a great game!
But there are a few things I have to discuss about the vanguard.
Without wanting to spoil, but I play a vanguard and am (thanx to a cold, that keeps me away from working and tied to my XBO….*cough* bed) quite ahead in the story and have gained the abillity to use assault rifle and barrier. It becomes available later, If you choose right (don´t worry, you ARE going to come across it, you don´t have to search the whole galaxy). With my maxed out charge and shockwave, I now can phase into pretty much any group of minor enemies barrier up and guns blazing without a scratch (on Veteran difficult). Just be patient, grasshopper. Power comes with time and disciplä. Disciplä comes from inside
Hey Joe.
So a small thing that i thought of.
I played this on the PC version i never saw any big AI pathing issues so maybe its a Xbox thing.
Now the Cerberus network thing should not be seen as a punishment for used game buyers, but a reward for the “First time” buyers. You have to remember that Bioware will not make any money at all from a used game sell so this is a way for them to make a bit of cash.
Im so gonna get this…..when Im living on my own…..
i agree on almost every point. i didn’t have any AI issues, but i hated scanning planets especially when at then end i was trying to find 116 element zero, but had 60000 paladium and kept finding atleast 5000 more per rich planet. Some other issues i had was the lack of weapons and armor. it is bull that we only get 2 guns per weapon class besides heavy weapons. and the armor was still very limited, besides being able to customize the color. and while i didn’t explore every bit of the galaxy, it didn’t feel like there were half as many missions as there were in the other. i did every mission in the game, besides extensive galactic exploration and i finished the game in 29 hours. I hope DLC can extend that time by another 5-10 hours. my other issue is not being able to choose how things went in the last game if you decide to choose a new game. i was under the assumption(i think from an interview) that it would ask us questions and decide from that what happened in the first one. now if i want to make sure things went a certain way i have to pull out the first game and play that for 10 hours to get my choices right, then start on a character on the sequel.
overall i would still give it a 9/10 for great story, great gameplay(keep ammo in the 3rd one), a feeling that my choices actually effected the universe, and a truly epic ending that made me feel like everything i had done in the game matter. i never would have thought they could pull off such a great ending that encompassed much of what i’ve done, but this just reassures me that the third one is going to be awesome having everything you’ve done come back to haunt or help you. can’t wait for closure, and i guess i’ll start on my next 10 characters so i don’t have to do what i’m doing now when the third one comes out.
Btw Joe, you CAN use an assault rifle on other classes. Just get far enough into the game (around 6 or 5 companios gained) and it’ll give you the option to unlock the ability to use either shotgun, sniper, or assault rifle. Atleast it did for me on my Sentinel.
Think about this: if the third game is as much of an improvement as this one, how would you reflect that if you already gave this one 10/10?
A movie sounds like a horrible idea. Just the dialog stretches for what must be at least ten hours for a single play-through, and there’s only so much you can cut before you’re left with an incoherent mess. Plus there’s the whole male vs. female, paragon vs. renegade difference. Unless they took the Mock Effect route of having two Shepards, of course.
I hate movie about video game, and would hate to see the ME franchise raped that way…
Trought they can the same way as the novels… meanings tell a story completelly apart from Shepard story… Like the first one tell the story of the mission Seren and Anderson have done together, the secound is about one of the character of the first novel and is set betwen ME and 2… it go more in deep on Cerberus than the first one did and introduced the collector and explain why the Quarian hate Cerberus in the secound game.
Another great Review there, Joe. Keep it up! I would agree on several parts if I ever had the game itself but, unluckily, I have to wait till the 4th of February till I get my copy of Collector’s Edition. But yeah, I agree on the ME Movie and let us hope that Bioware will actually write the script. IF they do and they prove the Movie to be successful, they may show that not all Movies based on games are awful!
Oh, and another thing…
Renegade Shepard = Hell yeah! \m/
Oh quick thing, the only thing I don’t like about the ammo system is that in the first game they established why it’s an overheat system in the tech jargon. Basically, all the guns in Mass Effect 1 don’t have clips they have a big iron bar jammed in them and each shot is shredded of the top of that iron bar, molded, wrapped in eezo, and launched and near light speeds at people. Then they say “Wait, forget that we have clips now.” and kinda piss all over their own explanation. Small issue, but all in all it’s still a great game. I actually prefer the clip system, it’s just that tiny thing.
The thing is it’s not ammo clips… They are a device to prevent over heat a cooling device to deal with the overheat problem… but yeah it kinda BS
Joe, I must agree with you about the random encounter system. I don’t know if you played Dragon Age on Xbox 360 (I know you did on PC but 360 worked a lot like ME, but i digress) but I thought that this would be a little like that, random encounters, swaping gameplay between characters, that sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely in the running for my favorite Sci-Fi franchise, but when they showed in the previews Grunt’s charge abilities and all that I thought you would be able to swap to that character and use them. And to be honest I agree with the whole AI thing because a lot of times in a firefight I’m hiding behind cover then I look back and think “Where’s my team?” only to find them in the other room hiding in the corner. Ok, that’s enough out of me, love the review and you forgot that you can actually have sex with Tali…somehow. I’m getting there!
I’m getting my Spec Ed next week!
I can be at ease now that the title has gotten clearence from Admiral Joe.
i see one of ur downpoints is no multiplayer, but i think a multiplayer feature would ruin the feel of the game, its a single player game, an online function would bring it down. But yes, starship battles and i also like the ammo system, more realistic
No mention of Tali romance? *slaps back*
*Punches Joe* How did you forget this?!
Hey Joe, where is Pablo in Mass Effect 2? xD
Ow! That hurt!
I need to go play the first one indeed. Bioware never fails to please, huh? 
Unleast you count Sonic DS….
Personally i ahte the scan system in Mass effect 2 it’s long and boring… but beyound that the game is awesome!
fuck, i want to get that game but im still boycotting ea for shutting pandemic studios. and only real shepard is adrian shepard from that old half-life expansion. well, i just keep on playing something else. maybe i will play some mw2… wait, they screwed up the servers! now i dont have many games to choose when im boycotting every studio ever. nah, i just go to steam and buy that, whats difference about regular and deluxe edition? i will just buy the regular… now. yeah, i really buyed it. seriously! 49.99 euros gone! downloading it now.
WHAT !? Joe, how can you give it a 9/10… This game deserves the 10/10 and for me its one of the BEST games i have EVER played.
Liked all of the improvements.The ending was awesome (though ME1 ending was far more epic, but ME2 ending is kind of a set up for the sequel). Can’t wait for ME3.
There are problems that your overlooking, it is worth every penny of $60 though. Like I said it came VERY Close, but it just needed one more new memorable feature to have put it over the top.
What happened to the Star Trek paradoy review you were going to do of the Beta?
Are you going to do a video review of No More Heroes 2 (saw the ending on YouTube and it sucks!) or is it just Xbox 360 and PS3 games you review?
I dont have a Wii and I dont plan on getting one in the near future so I wont be able to review that one. Sorry.
For the record, NMH is getting a PS3 and Xbox 360 upgrade sometime this year. Complete with cheesecake collectors edition.
Good review and I am tempted to get the game for the PC but am against DRM which according to what I read is part of the PC edition =/
Joe, you got the Cerebus network all wrong, its confirmed that the Cerebus network is only for downloading free DLC, so if you want free DLC you have to buy Cerebus Network, a good stratedgy in my opinion.
As for the costly DLC, they will be available like normal DLC, just buy and download.
um, if you have to buy the Cerebus network, then how is the DLC free? you have just paid for it… and that is bs.
judging from the review, this sound sweet to me!
i didn’t used to like rpg-s that much before, but i’ve really started to enjoy them over the years, so i’m prolly gonna get this one…
by the way, joe: that slap really hurt
“yeah i haven’t played the original…