Having played through the game and enjoyed almost every minute it occurs to me it would be easy to be critical about Mass Effect 2. There's a lot of standing around talking to other characters. The game can be quite formulaic - for each character in your team there is a mission to recruit them and a mission to make them loyal, and it comes as no surprise when you're told the seventh character wants to speak to you about a loyalty mission having just played through the first six.
The game can also be quite mechanistic. Without wanting to spoil anything, an example of this occurs with upgrades. You're given the choice to upgrade a certain asset. If you do these upgrades, everything is fine. If you don't, characters die. This can leave you feeling a little that the game effectively forces you down a path, despite the illusion of choice.
However play the game, especially if you've played and completed Mass Effect (Xbox 360), and these criticisms melt away. With Mass Effect 2 the game establishes itself as part of a series, and like any good sci-fi you care about the characters and the story. Importing a game from Mass Effect 1 carries forward many decisions you made in the first game. You slip into something comfortable; a universe you remember and helped create.
Bioware have worked hard to improve everything they could from the first game. Combat feels more natural, weapon upgrades work differently (to me an improvement from the first game's bewildering choice of armaments), characters feel more fleshed out and side-quests are much better, each unique rather than the barren, dull planets with identical buildings from the first game. The story is more enveloping and the moral ambiguity of the team you work for more enjoyable than the relatively clear cut nature of the first game.
The game works because it feels like a universe you're involved with and part of. I played it through as thoroughly and constantly as I could and am now doing so again. Even Mass Effect 1 doubters will find more than enough magic here to make it worth purchasing.
There are a couple of things i would like to point out before I Review this game. Those people who gave it a one star, quite obviously don't play alot of bioware games. Unfortunately for those people, games such as bioware's are *slightly* repetetive, due to the fact, you basically do the same thing on every mission, which is shoot things. The Game is less shooter (although the did improve this greatly) and more roleplay, focusing on the dialog, which was quite incredable. The second thing is, i cannot review this whole game, its too big and mindblowingly deep, this is just the surface to entice or disuade you.
(if your not to interested with the technical stuff and just want to know if its good for you, scroll to "THE LOW-DOWN")
**Good points**
-The graphics are intense, a welcome upgrade from the mass effect "stuttery" glitchy graphics.
- Awesome diaolog, bioware always seem to surprise me with their commitment to dialogue, in previous bioware games it's only secondary characters with speaking roles, both mass effects have enchanted me with their superior dialogue.
-The story, contrary to alot of reviews, i thought was good, albiet a tad dark and gloomy, focusing much more on the peril of the human race, and diving really deep into that story. I might be crazy but, I think mass effect 1 had colour scheme in the blue zones (i found it much more uplifting and bright) and mass effect 2 more of a red, always dark, mixed with a few brighter planets so you dont want to kill yourself when you play the game.
-The side loyalty quests, i thought was a nice perk, though it WAS a tad repetative, and a shame that they die if you dont do the loyalty quests.
-The senery is absolutely breathtaking at times, you really see the care the developers put into this.
-the love side plot is interesting, as you have more choice, and you don't just have to get it on with the "Main" characters, also a minor one too. A slight shame its not an achievement as its a darn sight more difficult that the first game...
- The story is thrilling and at some points genuinely scary or you have genuine worry for the lives of your team.
- I know every gamer likes to hear this, they patched the game regularely, so now its 10x less glitchy, at one point, i had a character with cross eyes, trying to say something of dire importance, and i couldn't stop laughing.
**The Bad Points**
-The thing that made me want to scream the most was the weapon situation... You get two or three types of weapon and upgrade them... It took me a while to figure it all out for my self, and to be honest, i would much rather have the old system back (buy weapons with better/ different specs, many weapons - many looks, it was more pleasant to the eye rather thatn having only two or three type of each gun. What a let down...)
-The minerals/ mining. Im sure the novelty of mining for minerals for upgrades was awesome the first half hour... maybe. But we all soon found out that its boring and takes up 25% of the time. Time we could potentially be kicking the collectors backside... oh! and listening to shepards chisled voice.
- The begining and the cliffhanger. In my opinion, i was very upset that shepard had to die at all, not that im a obsessive freak, just, i didn't see much point. The end, as always, bioware loves keeping us on the edge, and well, if they dont make a mass effect 3, or some such bad boy, there are gunna be alot of angry fans...
**[[^^THE LOW-DOWN^^]]**
Basically, this came is probably *one of* the best Action/Thirller RPG games released so far for xbox360, i have played it several times, and it brings me no end of joy to blow the hell out of the reapers, if you are a massive RPG fan, this game is a winner, the characters (if you play it through properly) are rich and developed. If your a shooter fan, this game will seem a little repetative at