Mass Effect II review (PC/360)

[Lazybones]

Well I just completed Mass Effect II (my first run at least) and I must say it is a huge improvement in many areas over Mass Effect I, and I enjoyed Mass Effect I for the most part.

Missions:
In ME 1 there where two types of Missions, the unique detailed main story missions and side missions with the canned modular maps.. In my play through ME II I haven't done all of the side missions yet but they are no longer canned and predictable. Planets all look fairly unique and missions have good set pieces in stead of mobile home stile modular units. I have enjoyed every mission.

Leveling / Inventory:
- hard core RPG players have complained about the changes, however I found they made the game more fun, it is much more strait forward to level your character now and still lets you do lots of customization

Combat / Ammo:
- Ammo is now limited, which can be difficult if you character class depends on it, on the other hand I rarely ran out and you can level up now much ammo your weapons have.
- Combat has been made more real time, you can still pause to target, select powers and attack, but you can also just hard map 3 powers and go realtime almost all the time. You no longer can crouch however that is replaced with a Gears of war style cover system where you snap to objects and poke your head out. You can nolonger just run head on into combat as enemies will tear through your shields, armor and health in seconds. Over all I really liked this.

Dislikes:
Out with the Mako and the empty planets, and in with the planet scanning, which is VERY VERY slow on the 360. Not a show stopper but a time sink.

Story system:
In addition to the special Paragon and Renegade dialog paths that you have to level up to get and are still great, there are Paragon and Renegade quick time interrupt events that come up in some conversations, this can range from hugging someone that is sad to booting them out a window of a high rise building.. Sometimes they are life and death choices, someone pulls a gun, do you back off and get peaceful or draw and blow his head off. These make the already great flowing dialog system even better.

Consequences:
Your choices from ME1 can carry over to ME2 which results in lots of side quests characters emailing you, as well as some more interesting changes to the story. You can also Fail ME2 and die, preventing you from importing into ME3, also various characters can die. This should make ME3 even more interesting.

I am very much looking forward to DLC for ME2 and playing ME3.

[Melbosa]

You can also Fail ME2 and die, preventing you from importing into ME2, also various characters can die. This should make ME3 even more interesting.

I think you mean fail ME2 and prevent importing into ME3?



Glad you liked it... I may rent it, as you know I wasn't a fan of ME1.  We'll see if 2 appeals more to me.

[Lazybones]

Fixed... I remember you didn't like ME1 much... thought you might be interested in what changed... Biggest thing for me was the building on the story from ME1 and the choices in ME1.. The choices don't change the main story to much but some choices are very visible, such as if someone died in one, or you saved them. ME2 has choices some interesting choices that can change your team significantly.

[Mr. Analog]

Excellent review Lazy