Mass Effect 2 has an amazing opening. An interstellar cruiser with an asteroid hull teleports out of nowhere and obliterates your ship, ostensibly killing your main character Commander Shepard in the process. Of course Shepard doesn't stay dead—and your ship gets reconstructed—but the bold start does more than just thrill: it establishes for all intents and purposes that the first Mass Effect has also been obliterated. Gone are the cumbersome inventories, the worthless RPG options, and the low-stakes conversations of the past. Mass Effect 2 is cleaner, more cinematic, and a categorical upgrade to the first game in almost every way. And it's not only a superior title—it's one of the best games on the Xbox 360.
That's not to say that Mass Effect 2 doesn't stumble. The worst part about the game is that it happily throws only two types of minigames at you over the course of thirty hours, meaning you'll "play" them over a hundred times. They're better than the droll Simon Says nonsense in the first game, but since neither minigame increases in intensity or complexity, they get real old real fast. Besides that, there's a slew of BioWare Bugs™ that will inevitably force a reload, and the UI remains in need of improvement. For instance, your upgrade catalog is sequestered to a computer terminal, ordered alphabetically instead of by type for some reason. And you can't even see what your squadmates' abilities do unless you bring them on a mission! I also have some reservations about the combat, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Mass Effect 2's failings may agitate, but they never really pull the game down. For the most part the rambunctious ride through space is smooth, fascinating, and always entertaining. What helps is that rather than embarking on a disconnected goose chase across the galaxy for an agent gone rogue, Mass Effect 2 is centered on two well-worn premises: building a team and getting revenge. The fabulously-designed Collector ship is an enigmatic vessel that hounds you throughout the story, its eerie, insectoid inhabitants popping up right when you start to forget about them. And your squadmates are as distinct as they are dangerous, being well-worth the effort it takes to recruit them thanks to their diverse designs, colorful backstories, and powerful abilities.
When I call their abilities "powerful", I don't mean it as some bizarre form of fictional flattery—your team in Mass Effect 2 frequently does heavy lifting. Taking cover has become a fundamental part of the series, as any unit left without it will get shredded to bits. Your allies are a key part of that "shredding": they unleash good damage, soften armor, and can pull entrenched enemies airborne so you can fill them with holes. I found myself constantly thanking my squadmates as peripheral foes flew back from concussive blasts or were ignited in a blaze of fire. Whereas the first Mass Effect had me babysitting my squadmates, in 2 I was trying my best to keep up.
Combat is no longer the clumsy slog it was in the first game, but it's not especially deep either. I don't think that's an indictment of the game's quality—I found the action to be plenty serviceable—it's just that you'll bereft of options most of the time. Battlefields can range from narrow hallways to larger stadiums, but since being out in the open is a death sentence, you'll find one piece of cover to plant yourself at and fight from there. And holy cow does Mass Effect 2 love throwing scores of enemies at you, making every encounter feel twice as long as it should be. The rock-paper-scissors system of having to deal with shields-armor-barriers keeps the gunplay from feeling brain-dead, but linking all abilities to the same cooldown pushes you to use same 2-3 routine powers. Again, the combat is satisfying for the most part, it's just that the longer you play Mass Effect 2, the more repetitive you'll notice the encounters are (and nowhere is this more evident than in the Arrival DLC).
Thankfully your journey through the galaxy is no longer comprised of dull rocky wastelands. Mass Effect 2 structures its campaign around recruiting allies and gaining their loyalty, which keeps the story strong, your tasks varied, and the narrative relevant. When you do decide to take a break and explore the unknown, the side missions are all surprisingly unique. True, Blood Pack is a lot like Blue Suns which is a lot like Eclipse, but the backdrops behind the mercenary groups offer the diversity that the first game desperately needed. On one planet you'll infiltrate a quarantined robot facility, on another you'll wade through a misty maze, and on another you'll tip-toe atop a crashed frigate teetering over a cliff. And those are just the side missions, the stuff BioWare is fine with letting you miss!
Lastly, the story retains the same level of excellence, both in content and prose, set by its predecessor. The removal of a lot of casual conversations might be disappointing to some, but I felt that Mass Effect 2 delivered a good mix of discussions both pertinent and incidental. The mystery of the Collectors has a good (though slightly ridiculous) payoff, and you'll come to love chatting with your staggering squad of twelve—or at least find a few to grow attached to. In the grand scheme of things, Mass Effect 2's plot is mostly connective tissue binding the first and third games together, but the enthralling story woven here outshines the tales surrounding it; 2 is the meat of the trilogy's sandwich.
Mass Effect 2's leap over the first game is practically cosmic. It's unarguable that in 2, the promising blueprint of Mass Effect has reached its full potential, culminating in one of the best experiences in gaming's seventh console generation. It's in no way a flawless game, but Mass Effect 2's problems come across as blemishes, not scars. It's an impressive, tense journey loaded with hours of content to ruminate over, managing to never overstay its welcome even if you 100% the game. I don't think any planet-hopping sci-fi video game has topped Mass Effect 2—and though it could be nostalgia speaking, I doubt any ever will.
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Images obtained from: NightSolo.net, etgeekera.com, youtube.com, NorthernLight.org
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