Mass Effect 2
How do you make an epic game even better? Just ask BioWare as their latest installment in the Mass Effect trilogy takes everything you liked about the first game, and turns it up to eleven! Like many folks I know, Mass Effect was one of the first games I ever finished that I immediately started a new play-through; I simply couldn’t get enough of the world of the Commander Shepard and the Normandy, and I was curious what a Renegade play through would feel like. I was pleasantly surprised that simple changes in choices could have significant impacts on story and game play. So when BioWare announced before E3 that they would be releasing Mass Effect 2, I was very excited. I just didn’t anticipate just how good it was going to be.
The first Mass Effect wasn’t without its faults. The combat system was pretty clunky and I often wondered what my AI companions were up to. There were also long sequences of traveling around in the Mako land vehicle looking for story arcs and getting chased by large worms (I hated those guys). Happily, all of these things have either been upgraded or eliminated in this latest installment. From a character modeling standpoint alone, we can see vast improvements in an already polished game. For example, in the original Mass Effect, Commander Shepard had twenty animations for cover. In Mass Effect 2 there are over two hundred animations for cover; quite the difference.
Gone are your long treks in the Mako, but they are replaced with a dynamic planet surveying option. In the former, game collecting resources consisted of simply pressing the X button while in orbit of the planet, and there really wasn’t any compelling reason to do so. In Mass Effect 2, the resources you collect help you research and upgrade your weapons and armor, so you’ll want to do it. Instead of pressing the X button over a planet, you have to scan the planet manually and when your scanner bars rise, you launch a probe. The better you are at scanning for resources, the more resources you will receive. It’s one of many puzzle experiences that BioWare has intricately weaved into your game experience, and dare I say I found it quite fun!
Also gone is the intricate and somewhat annoying inventory system. In Mass Effect I would have to carefully kit out my team, deciding everything from heat syncs to ammunition type. The kitting system is far simpler now and characters can swap out ammunition based on skill sets and not gun type. Instead of only four weapon types, there are now nineteen weapon types that are divided into sub-types. Guns no longer overheat, but ammunition is limited. This inevitably means that I find myself switching guns for the situation as I watch my ammunition levels. They removed the grenades from the first game and replaced them with new “heavy weapons” like rocket and grenade launchers. Trust me, nothing feels better than blowing away a pack of Collectors with a grenade launcher.
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